Theater / Film

Review: Zoetic Stage’s ‘POTUS’ Provides Comic Relief From Reality

Written By Michelle F. Solomon
January 15, 2025 at 10:26 AM

The cast of Zoetic Stage’s ‘POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive.’ The comedy runs through Sunday, Jan. 26 in the Carnival Studio Theater at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami. (Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography/courtesy of Adrienne Arsht Center)

When Selina Fillinger’s “POTUS” opened on Broadway in 2022, Joe Biden was president after defeating Donald J. Trump in 2020 and no one imagined that a Black woman would run for the White House when the incumbent dropped out of the 2024 election.

Zoetic Stage’s production of “POTUS” was obviously programmed by the regional company way before anyone could have foreseen the rollercoaster of the recent election, but its moment in the season is perfectly timed.

The sheer craft of Fillinger’s farcical comedy is what makes jokes that landed perhaps one way in 2022 even more on point today amid the United States’ current state of the union. This is a play about partisanship – a cavernous divide caused by patriarchy.

Amber Joy Layne as Dusty and Elena Maria Garcia as Stephanie in Zoetic Stage’s production of Selina Fillinger’s “POTUS.” (Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography/courtesy of the Adrienne Arsht Center)

“POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive” runs at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts through Sunday, Jan. 26.

The ensemble of seven South Florida actresses, Renata Eastlick, Elena Maria Garcia, Autumn Kioti Horne, Amber Joy Layne, Elizabeth Price, Karen Stephens and Gaby Tortoledo, create sidesplitting moments reveling in Fillinger’s gift for uproarious and outrageous scenarios.

The play’s secondary title, “Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying To Keep Him Alive,” describes the plot, a female staff trying to keep a misogynic, narcissistic president from sinking.

Zoetic’s founding artistic director Stuart Meltzer’s spot on direction ensures everyone and everything is intact to pull off the fast pace and outrageously zany situations – a secretary’s drug trip, a mistress’s penchant for Slurpees that result in blue-tinted vomit, the bust of a suffragette hurled across a room causing bodily harm, guns drawn, ankle cuffs cut, noisy breast pumps, and so much more.

Gaby Tortoledo as Jane, the White House press secretary, gives unsolicited advice to harried Harriet, played by Elizabeth Price as the White House Chief of Staff in Zoetic Stage’s “POTUS.” (Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography/courtesy of Adrienne Arsht Center)

Three already consumed cans of Diet Coke placed on White House press secretary Jean’s desk in the first scene hint at how overly caffeinated the next two hours will be.

And, while the opposite sex is talked to and talked about, the only hint of a male the audience ever sees on stage is suit pant legs, dress socks and shoes sticking out of an industrial laundry bin. It’s part of the biting feminist satire that maintains that patriarchy is present even when its recipients are absent.

It’s most likely a typical day in this White House, which the playwright in her script describes as the setting, which should not be “any current administration, but broad strokes of past presidents, combined with stress dreams of future ones.” And, she writes, “if we’re being honest, an amalgamation of them all.”

The clean-up crew has already started out the day with a public relations crisis on their hands. Press secretary Jean (Tortoledo) and harried White House chief of staff Harriet (Price) are trying to figure out how to put a spin on yet another POTUS faux pas as he tells a room full of diplomats that his wife, Margaret (Stephens) is absent because she was “having a (c word) morning.”

The play is not for anyone offended by the c word, the f word, or other assorted sordid sundries. But, if we’re being honest, it works, peppering the dialogue to what’s usually attributed as men’s “locker room talk,” the playwright point about double standards.

Karen Stephens is the gun toting First Lady, left, and Renata Eastlick is the journalist Chris in Zoetic Stage’s “POTUS.” (Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography/courtesy of Adrienne Arsht Center)

Stephens plays the president’s wife whose designer footwear has been replaced by Crocs after a social media frenzy when FOTUS wore stilettos to a homeless shelter. Eastlick is breast-pumping journalist Chris who’s on site for an interview scheduled with The First Lady but now she’s in the right place to get the exclusive on the c-word debacle. GenZ guys from hipper publications than the stodgy mainstream newspaper she works for are edging her out, so she’s desperate for a scoop.

Garcia is anxiety laden Stephanie, the prez’s secretary, who is practicing Harriet’s “power stance” mentoring and listening to a BitchBeats playlist – Joan Jett, Heart, Olivia Rodgrio, mixed taped for her by Harriet.

Enter Layne as the president’s mistress, Dusty – does the name Stormy come to mind? – who has been flown in from Iowa by private jet on the president’s orders. And the other surprise visitor played by Kioti Horne, Bernadette, who has been locked up in prison for drug trafficking. She’s still wearing an ankle monitor but ready for the pardon that’s been promised by her POTUS brother.

To clearly define personalities of seven characters is a challenge both in the writing and directing, but singular in their characterizations they are. Each actress provides multiple layers, which gives them depth, and surely thanks to Meltzer’s guidance, they can overcome Fillinger’s lack of dimensionality – the script and characters seem drawn from a sketch comedy template.

Autumn Kioti Horne is the president’s sister, Bernadette, who has a past with the White House press secretary Jane, played by Gaby Tortoledo in Zoetic Stage’s “POTUS.” (Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography/courtesy of Adrienne Arsht Center)

Price’s Harriet is tightly wound but never over the top so as to not be convincing, Stephens as the gun-toting First Lady commands the stage adding an ever so slight nuance of a certain familiar vice president. Tortoledo’s Ann Taylor-wearing press secretary is picture perfect ready to face the press at a moment’s notice.  Eastlick’s Chris brings it on as the burned-out career woman and mother fighting to remain relevant.

Garcia, Layne and Kioti Horne are given the lion’s share of comic moments. It’s difficult to buy into Garcia as meek (SNL’s Rachel Dratch played the character in the Broadway production). Still, there aren’t many performers who can evoke such laughter with their physical comedy as Garcia. After Stephanie gets hold of some of Bernadette’s pills, she’s off and running on a drug trip giving Garcia the freedom to use every ounce of her physical comedy toolbox. The veteran actress knows how to balance the antics so there’s never any upstaging of her fellow actors. Layne’s Slurpee slurping farmgirl is a peppy cheerleader, laying on the requisite ditziness but just enough to stay believable. Kioti Horne, as the president’s butch jailbird sister is every bit of a rock star – channeling the looks of Chrissy Hynde with the moxie of “Orange is the New Black’s” Piper Chapman.

From left, Autumn Kioti Horne, Amber Joy Layne, Renata Eastlick, Elizabeth Price, Elena Maria Garcia and Karen Stephens in a scene from Zoetic Stage’s “POTUS.” (Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography/courtesy of the Adrienne Arsht Center)

Sound design includes a girl power soundtrack credited to Meltzer and associate director Bailey Hacker, set design by Michael McKeever puts the focal point on large portraits of past presidents and a change of set a couple of times moves the action to a vanity in the office’s ladies’ bathroom. Set changes run smoothly and appear practically choreographed as stagehands and actors move things quickly in and out. Dawn Shamburger’s costume design runs the gamut from corporate to crazy (wait until you get glimpse of Harriet’s  glittery tuxedo in the final scene), Shannon Veguilla’s props and set dressing are perfectly presidential, and Becky Montero makes subtle but impactful lighting design choices to emphasize the fast-paced action. Kudos to the work of fight choreographer Paul Homza and intimacy director Jeni Hacker.

As inauguration day looms, political fighting over flags at half-staff, and confirmation hearings underway or delayed on Capitol Hill, Zoetic Stage’s “POTUS” takes us inside a White House whose executive order is hellbent on hilarity. Now, isn’t that the perfect declaration of independence?

WHAT: Zoetic Stage’s “POTUS: or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive” by Selina Fillinger

WHEN: 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Additional Saturday matinee on Jan. 25.  Through Sunday, Jan. 26.

COST:  $56-61

WHERE: Carnival Studio Theater at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami

INFORMATION: (305) 949-6722, zoeticstage.org or arshtcenter.org

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com

 

latest posts

Miami Playwright Finds Inspiration For ‘Oskuneru&...

Written By Sergy Odiduro,

A Miami-born and Suriname-raised playwright's tribute to the maroons of Suriname and their legacy has come a long way.

Tribute: Artburst Theater Critic Christine Dolen Will B...

Written By Michelle F. Solomon, Artburst Editor,

Remembering artburstmiami.com's theater critic Christine Dolen, a South Florida treasure.

Review: ‘Jersey Boys’ At Actors’ Play...

Written By Mary Damiano,

Oh what a night at Actors' Playhouse as the theater on Miracle Mile finally gets its chance to stage "Jersey Boys."