Elizabeth Durham, Sherry McCamley, Bryanna Bentley, Clair LaNicca, Samantha Joy Luhn, Anna Hazard, and (front) Brandi La'Sherrill Photo by Claudia Hershner

In case the full title is not enough to tip audiences off, POTUS is a farce from start to finish, replete with slamming doors and unexpected, mostly hilarious turns of events. Using a comic style that will feel familiar to fans of NBC's "Saturday Night Live," each of a dozen or so scenes ends with a black-out following hot on an outrageous statement or an about-face development. Director Davis has appropriately kept her cast's momentum at high speed from start to finish, and Fillinger's script requires extensive physical choreography that becomes more and more unhinged as the story unfolds.

Falcon's all-female cast of POTUS is up to the task, ready to fling themselves in every mad moment and startling situation that pops up–and there are many across the show's two acts (it's about an hour and 45 minutes long). Sherry McCamley, as Harriet, POTUS's long-suffering chief of staff, and Elizabeth Durham as Jean, the resourceful but harried White House press secretary, open the tale with a rapid fire exchange bemoaning an unguarded utterance about the First Lady (using an obscene word that rhymes with "punt") by the feckless leader of the free world. They frantically discuss how to spin their way beyond outraged reactions from many directions.

Next we meet Stephanie (Samantha Joy Luhn), POTUS's nervous but tightly wound personal secretary, Dusty (Anna Hazard), described as "his Dalliance" and who has arrived unannounced and likely pregnant. Add to the mix Chris (Bryanna Bentley), a persistent White House reporter who is juggling parenthood and her own competitive industry. Before long they're joined by the unwelcome arrival of Bernadette (Clair LaNicca), POTUS's drug-dealing sister, out on bail and wearing an ankle bracelet. Wandering in and out of these incendiary scenes is Margaret (Brandi La'Sherrill), the constantly self-promoting First Lady.

All of the actors have highlight moments, almost so many that, despite a lot of complex physical choreography, the production becomes noisily and bewilderingly raucous–delivering on the promise of chaos, evoking a lot of laughter, but perhaps also leaving audiences sometimes lost in the story being enacted. Further complications arise, especially when Stephanie downs a handful of hallucinogenic drugs from Bernadette, thinking that they're Tums. For the balance of the story, Luhn slowly crawls, climbs, writhes and slithers around the stage in an increasingly mad performance. LaNicca's imposing Bernadette is said to physically resemble her presidential brother enough that she might fill in for him when he goes unexpectedly AWOL.

True to the genre of farce, POTUS has a boatload of running gags. We hear repeated references to the Kingdom of Bahrain, a tiny Middle Eastern nation whose diplomats have been offended by POTUS's coarse language. Another acronym, FML, is bandied about in a variety of incarnations. (Look it up.) POTUS's demanding schedule–political endorsements, diplomatic discussions of disarmament, and more–means that the dumpster fire of the moment is seldom quenched, and more often keeps burning. It's no easy task to find the right balance in a script that calls for every actor to be constantly over the top. Piper Davis's production mostly accomplishes that.

The overall theme of POTUS is that it's these harried behind-the-scenes women who actually hold things together at the White House. Of course, if that were truly the case, then we citizens of the United States need to fasten our collective seat belts. Falcon has chosen to present a very in-the-moment script during the tumultuous 2024 presidential election. One can only wonder whether it's a distant fantasy or a threatening moment for our nation. Regardless, it's a source of almost too much crazed hilarity.

POTUS runs through September 28, 2024, at Falcon Theater, 638 Monmouth Street, Newport KY. For tickets and information, please visit falcontheater.net or call 513-479-6783.