The election cycle continues to loom over us, and sometimes you need to laugh so you don’t cry. Luckily, theatre has been a way to skewer the political landscape since the days of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Selina Fillinger’s POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive is the perfect play for this moment. City Theatre’s Pittsburgh production closes October 13, so you still have time to abate some of your election anxiety with laughter.
Fillinger’s play is a satirical drama centering around a fictional president embroiled in a sex scandal. And there are, true to the title, seven women in his personal and professional life attempting to pick up the pieces. But the president himself hardly appears at all. In an interview with the New York Times, Fillinger said that this was a deliberate choice. “If you take the man out of the room, patriarchy still exists and we still play by its rules,” she said.
City Theatre’s POTUS Can Help You Laugh Your Way to the Election
She also throws in Easter eggs about how inhospitable the world of politics can be to women. In the original production, the set featured a coin-operated tampon machine that really exists in the White House. The government spends money on plenty of things, but apparently tampons is not one of them.
When the show debuted in 2022, Fillinger was only 28, making her one of the youngest people to have a Broadway debut. Now, in the 2024 election, theatres across the country have kicked off their season with her play. The Pittsburgh production has been praised as being “funny from the first line” by the Trib Live. QBurgh lauded its portrayal of a lesbian love story and an out-and-pround gay woman in the Oval Office.
Notably, rehearsals for the Pittsburgh production of POTUS began before Kamala Harris received the Democratic nomination. Director Meredith McDonough told WESA that “[the play] is about a group of women that, even in the craziest of circumstances, will keep 18 million plates in the air and still have a plan because that is what women in leadership do.”
If the election stress is really getting to you, check out our recommendations for natural sleep aids Or, try our cocktail The Margin of Error as an after-show drink. But laughter is always the best medicine, so keep in mind that tickets are available for POTUS via City Theatre through Oct 13.
Story by Emma Riva
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