Agents of change: ‘POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying To Keep Him Alive’ turns a lens on the dynamics of power

Santa Fe Playhouse is opening its 2026 season of Power Plays with “POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying To Keep Him Alive.” 

Amrita Dhaliwal and Robyn Rikoon co-directed the show, which opens Thursday, March 19, and runs through April 12. 

Dhaliwal said co-directing has been “amazingly symbiotic,” as she and Rikoon volleyed off one another.

She said during rehearsals, she does not hear the text, but rather its rhythm and movement, noting how words and people play off each other.

Dhaliwal and Rikoon said a key part of the show is the relationship between the seven women of the cast. 

Rikoon said “POTUS” is swimming in the waters of white patriarchy. The play examines the dynamic between these women in power and how they are culpable and uphold the man in power. 

“You see them really kind of battling each other and then coming together, and then blaming each other and then coming together again,” Rikoon said.

She said it is rare to see a play about power dynamics between women. 

The show features Larissa Oleynik as Harriet, the president’s chief of staff. Oleynik is known for her film and TV roles, including “10 Things I Hate About You” and “The Secret World of Alex Mack.” 

“(Harriet) is in charge of everything, and her job is to sort of keep the train on the tracks,” Oleynik said.

Oleynick said her character has a lot of power and the audience should get the sense that Harriet knows everything. 

She said she researched real-life presidential cabinets to figure out how to play Harriet. She drew from her decades of acting to show Harriet as someone who, while going through chaos, knows at the end of the day she is good at her job. 

“That’s sort of where I’m starting with her,” Oleynick said.

The play acts as an agent of change, Dhaliwal said, one she hopes leads audiences to want to have a conversation about power. 

She said “POTUS” looks at power through the lens of comedy, without diffusing the reality of political issues. The play takes aim at the highest institution of power in the United States, the White House. 

“I think there is also a danger in when we use comedy to laugh at something that is actually really dangerous,” Dhaliwal said. “It diffuses our worry or our alarm, and then possibly our action, and that is not the intention of ‘POTUS.’”

Rikoon said the play is set during the present day but is not meant to comment on the current president, but asks when one person is in charge, what happens to those around them? 

The co-directors said they have been aware throughout rehearsals of the current political upheaval happening, but it will not stop them from putting on the play. 

“I think theater lives in a place to take a risk,” Dhaliwal said, “and it’s risky to put up a play right now that is asking us to engage with this, but I think this is the kind of time that you do stuff like this.”

“I believe the purpose of art is to create conversation,” she said. 

Elizabeth Secor is an arts fellow from the New Mexico Local News Fellowship program. You can reach her at esecor@abqjournal.com.