‘Potus’: Propping up a president isn’t an easy job

By Rich Fahey

BOSTON – We males have known the truth for our entire lives. Whenever and wherever members of the patriarchy have had a success, it has been aided, abetted, assisted, enabled, organized and propped up by women. Often women working behind the scenes while juggling their jobs and home lives.

Playwright Selina Fillinger knows it, and decided to spill the beans on how the White House really works when it comes to the women behind The Man. Her blistering farce “POTUS,” subtitled “Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive,” now being presented by the SpeakEasy Stage Company, makes that hilariously clear.

An unapologetic feminist comedy, “POTUS” takes no prisoners during its 110 minutes, which includes an intermission. It is bawdy, at times outrageous, a West Wing markedly different from Martin Sheen’s. Start with the presidential seal, which boasts a turkey instead of an eagle.

It is only 9 a.m. on the day “POTUS” is set, but the president’s press secretary, Jean (Laura Latreiile), is already having a bad day. Chief of Staff Harriet (Lisa Yuen) has informed her that at  his first event of the day the president – who is unnamed and never appears — has referred to the first lady  with a word that is both incredibly vulgar and unprintable. He was unaware the first lady was in the audience.    

This is understandably stressful, given that the president is scheduled for a series of public events, including a nuclear nonproliferation conference, a political endorsement, a photo op with disabled veterans and a gala honoring a women’s leadership council.

Oh, yes, POTUS is also suffering from an abscess on a very sensitive area of his body which may or may not be related to “rough sexplay.”   Let the fun begin.

Thankfully, it’s all in the good hands of director Paula Plum, who describes “POTUS” as “a satire and a farce.” As an actress and director, she has been known to find her way around both, directing Actors Shakespeare Project’s production of Sheridan’s “The School for Scandal” and portraying Madame Pernell in Huntington Theatre Company’s production of Moliere’s “Tartuffe.”

First Lady Margaret (Crystin Gilmore) is an elegant, educated women with degrees from Stanford and Harvard and many other positive attributes, but she also knows her husband, and hat means she is always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The president’s personal secretary, Stephanie (Marianna Bassham), speaks five languages and is overqualified to the hilt, but is a walking pile of anxieties and fearful of being replaced. She guards the Oval Office with a vengeance. Her role will eventually test the outer limits of physical comedy and she will be all in  in a variety of hilarious ways.

“POTUS” is full of characters going delightfully over the top. Johanna Carlisle-Zepeda is an absolute standout with her delicious portrayal of the president’s sister Bernadette. Because her life up to that point has been a litany of illegal doings, she has come to petition her brother for a pardon, horrifying Jean and Harriet at the possibility of a political disaster when word goes out.

We find that Jean and Bernadette have a prior relationship, possibly derailed by one of the partners going to jail for an extended period.

White House reporter Chris (Catia) is one stressed out woman. We meet her as she is frantically pumping breast milk for her children. Her husband has left her, and she is frantically seeking a big story – preferably a scandal involving POTUS —  that will help her stave off the competition. She and Jean are continually at odds.

As if all this is not enough, the president’s pregnant girlfriend Dusty (Monique Ward Lonergan) from Iowa makes an unscheduled visit hoping to show POTUS photos of their unborn child. At one point, Bernadette asks Jean “Who’s the prosti-tot?” Dusty is eventually enlisted to use her “special skills” later as the women try to scheme their way out of an impossible situation.

“POTUS” is often both crude and rude, and some former presidents have been described that way, although Fillinger said in program notes says that the play is not about any one president, but “White Patriarchy, which pervades all political parties.”

 Eventually, after an errant toss of a sculpture  – much like one famous ashtray that was rumored to have been tossed in the White House   — things will go completely off the rails. Fillinger will abandon the clever wordplay almost completely in favor of physical comedy, which doesn’t always land with the same effect.

Set designer Jenna McFarland Lord has gotten into the act. Her set is a fun house of sorts, with off-kilter doors and walls that signal that everything going on in this space is distorted.

The point Fillinger is making can be summed up in one exchange between Jean and Harriet. “You stand in for him every single day, you’ve done it for years,” says Jean. “You clean up his messes, you make excuses, you do his job, and then you wake up and do it all over again.”

“Fillinger is burning down the house,” said Plum in an interview. “Our job is to help her light the fire.”

A house afire is not a pleasant thought. But if it’s this White House and this West Wing, it’s a guarantee the laughs will be fast and furious.

The SpeakEasy Stage Company production of “POTUS.” Play by Selina Fillinger. Directed by Paula Plum.  At the Roberts Studio Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, through Oct. 15. Tickets $25-$80. 617-933-8600, www.bostontheatrescene.com