In retrospect, the fate of Queensland Theatre’s production of a controversial play satirising American politics was telegraphed from the start. During an on-stage Q&A last week, director Lee Lewis alluded to the play’s possible cancellation because of the attempted Trump assassination. “When I woke up and read the news, I thought, ‘if he doesn’t survive, we have to cancel the play because it would be in very bad taste’,” she said.
The cast of Queensland Theatre’s cancelled production, POTUS. Credit: Morgan Roberts The play, titled POTUS, or Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, is a White House-set comedy by US playwright Selina Fillinger. Loading It was drawing respectable box-office turnover for Queensland Theatre when its opening night was suddenly postponed.
The entire run was subsequently cancelled, prompting a flurry of online commentary. “It’s intriguing as [to] why the whole season had to go, and not just do a reduced season, or call in an understudy,” said one Facebook user. “It makes no sense to cancel a whole season, particularly if a show was apparently selling well, had an excellent and diverse all-female cast and was very relevant given forthcoming American elections,” an Instagram post read.
On Friday, the company responded to inquiries from this masthead that the cancellation might be related to the real-life events lampooned in the play. “[It was] nothing to do with the current political state of affa.