Leigh Douglas is ROTUS: Receptionist of the United States

As a theatre-maker, the intelligence, humor, and irreverence in Leigh Douglas’s work has earned her a reputation for pushing boundaries and diving deep into contemporary issues. Known for an ability to create immersive, thought-provoking experiences, Douglas’s latest project, ROTUS: Receptionist of the United States, promises to be no exception. Set for a season at London’s Park theatre next month, the show is a sharp, satirical exploration of power, identity, and the often-overlooked roles that shape the mechanisms of governance.

At its core is the fictional “Receptionist of the United States” - a seemingly mundane role that Douglas portrays as a crucial, yet invisible, position within a tumultuous political landscape. Through the eyes of her protagonist, the show examines how seemingly small roles within a vast, complex system can hold far more significance than first appears. What starts as a seemingly comic portrayal of an office worker tasked with answering calls and managing schedules gradually unravels into a razor-sharp commentary on bureaucracy, hierarchy, and the ways power manifests in unexpected forms.

The unique premise of this satirical play, which had a phenomenal Edinburg Fringe run this year, combines absurdity with deep, layered questions about identity and visibility. As Douglas explores themes of responsibility and the everyday decisions that define larger political systems, ROTUS challenges audiences to reflect on the role of the individual in the vast machinery of governance, and how those on the periphery can wield influence in subtle, often unseen ways.

We follows Chastity Quirke, a conservative White House receptionist whose allegiance to the system begins to fracture. Douglas drew inspiration from women inside Trump-era politics – all navigating loyalty, ambition and the pressure to defend a system even as its moral failures become impossible to ignore.

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As opening night draws near, we caught up with Leigh to discuss her inspiration behind the show, the creative process, and the resonance of *it’s themes amongst today’s febrile political climate.

The people surrounding the current President of the United States seem to embrace authoritarianism without accountability, are brittle in the face of criticism, and are unreasonably fearful about the wider world. Is there a decent argument for this not being a cult?

The short answer is no. This is no longer a set of policy positions and values coming together to form the Republican party. This is a cult of personality centered around the semi-religious worship of one man, Donald Trump. There is also a uniformity in the way the women of the MAGA government especially dress and style themselves. You would be forgiven for thinking female Trump staffers were, in fact, the cast of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives dressed up to attend a Mad Men themed event. The very presence of the Republican makeup trend on TikTok and the Mormon Waves phenomenon shows that there is decreasing space for individuality and independent thought in MAGA spaces.

We’re used to images of Republican trad wives, but their look and uniform have become refined in recent years, to involve lots of designer gear and cosmetic surgery. How much of an impact has social media had on their circle? Are their efforts to embrace a particular attitude around beauty a sign of devotion to the wider cause?

When we think about the image of the Republican woman, we used to think about Barbara and Laura Bush. Those days are long gone. We are in the Make America Hot Again era. Conservative women are on a crusade to claim hotness for the conservative cause. They demand hotness continue to be defined by the beauty standards of 1990s supermodels. It would unfortunately appear that the women of the so called Make America Hot Again movement have been unable to cope with the body positivity movement, increased LGBTQIA+ visibility, or the inclusion of disabled models in the fashion industry. They cannot emotionally cope with the idea that someone who is fat, gender non-conforming or disabled might now be considered hot like them.  

It’s as though, by virtue of other types of bodies being visible and upheld in pop culture, they are being personally victimized. Why? The conservative gender roles they live within and promote place a huge portion of a woman’s value on her being physically attractive. They feel therefore that their identity and value is being diminished when anyone who does not attempt to live up to the ideal of conservative femininity is called “hot.” If the “woke” media changes the rules of hotness, they lose their sense of superiority over other women. As slim, white women, they are accustomed to being the default consumer of culture and goods and they don’t want to make space for advertising aimed at other types of women.  

So, they are consuming more and more so that their buying power is not diminished. Using social media as a tool, they define their identities as glamorous and aspirational. They therefore assert their dominance as the default consumer and pinnacle of womanhood once more.

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Isn’t it slightly unnerving to have a community so fiercely obsessed with individuality, yet they all seem to aspire to look similar? Or am I missing something?

When conservatives talk about individual liberty, they’re not actually talking about the individual. They are talking about the nuclear family. They are not claiming individual freedoms for adult women. They are claiming individual freedoms for men to set up their family structures and make decisions for his wife and children however they see fit. Therefore, a woman’s value does not lie in her individuality. It actually lies in her adherence to a set of unwritten rules which make her an ideal wife and mother.  

As any trad wife worth her salt will tell you, that woman has a duty to be beautiful for her husband, follow his lead and trust in his judgement. Therefore, it’s not about a woman having an individual personality of her own, it’s about how happily and how successfully she adheres to the beauty standards of the male gaze.

Were there any particular accounts from former Trump confidantes that helped inform your show? While there have been a few horror stories, mostly it just seems a bit odd and shambolic.

Absolutely, the show was initially inspired by the story of Cassidy Hutchinson who was an assistant to White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, in the first Trump administration and went on to testify against them both to the January 6th Committee in congress.  

I was fascinated by this young woman standing up to the might of MAGA at just twenty-five years old. I also drew from the experiences of two women with whom Cassidy Hutchinson went on to form an alliance, former White House Communications Director, Alyssa Farah Griffin and former Deputy White House Press Secretary, Sarah Matthews. Although she is very much still front and center to the Trump orbit, I have also drawn from the rhetoric and bravado of Karoline Leavitt.  

I find the current White House Press Secretary endlessly fascinating and, as no one seems to stay in Trump’s favour forever, I am deeply interested to see how the great partnership between Karoline Leavitt and Donald Trump plays out. Perhaps there will be fireworks to rival the departure of Elon Musk.

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Obviously, we can't expect everyone to be motivated by the same sense of social justice and ideas about equality, but can you explain the dissonance of this group of women supporting a group of men who broadly seem intent on reducing autonomy for half the population?

Anyone who’s ever observed straight people at secondary school can understand the power dynamics at play here. We are all living under patriarchy and most teenage girls and trans gender non-conforming people work that out around puberty. At that age, there are some girls who decide the best way to have power is to be the girl who’s one of the guys. That’s not always a bad thing if it’s a case of wanting to play football or videogames.  

The problem lies in the portion of those girls who sell-out the other girls as the price of entry to intimacy with men. We all knew a guys’ girl in school who was in on the joke with the boys at the other girls’ expense. In the conservative political space, women often end up having to be the most hardline on women’s issues as a way of proving themselves, like a hazing ritual into the boy’s club.  

I realise I’m being very binary in the way I speak about this, but American conservatives very much live in the prison of the binary. It’s “men are from Mars, women are from Venus” territory out there.

Any good wig or costume stories going into the production? It must have been a lot of fun getting the wardrobe and make-up perfect.

I’m very fortunate that my good friend, hair stylist Dan Adams, co-owner of Studio 365 in Shoreditch was able to help me design the hair for Chastity. We both agreed immediately that she needed to be blonde. I’m a natural brunette and I’ve always been fascinated by the power a hair colour has on the American zeitgeist (as evidenced by the horror of Sydney Sweeney’s recent American Eagle advertising campaign).

We looked through some inspiration in terms of MAGA blondes (Kayleigh McEnany, Karoline Leavitt, Ivanka Trump, Sonny Joy Nelson) and then Dan helped me find the perfect wig. He also dyed my own hair so I wouldn’t have to glue down the wig for the show every day in Edinburgh and could rather clip it into my own hair. I was very nervous about doing the wig on my own. I had visions of it flying off my head midway through the show, but he set me up perfectly with the right technique. I feel I could now make a drag queen proud.  

I have to say, it really is the wig which has developed Chastity Quirke into something of a drag persona for me. The minute she’s on my head, I feel more powerful. She has somewhat taken on a life of her own as well, in that I had the wig on a mannequin head in my shared green room at Edinburgh and I know she scared some of the other performers when they thought themselves to be alone backstage and then saw a floating blonde head.

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With satire, there’s always some degree of danger of becoming a bit snide about certain groups. Is it possible that there’s a whole different side to this particular echelon of Republican women? I hear they do a lot of fantastic work for charity…

I’d die for a peak behind the curtain to the more human side of Karoline Leavitt or to have a few cocktails with Ivanka Trump and ask her what she really thinks of her Dad.  

That being said, I don’t know that any amount of charity work would be able to make up for the ICE deportations currently ripping families apart in America, the extrajudicial killing of fishermen, or taking healthcare away from millions of citizens. If satire is dangerous, so is complicity and these women are indisputably complicit. People will have lifelong trauma as a result of this administration’s brutal policies. I therefore sleep fine at night, making these women look ridiculous.  

I’m open to the possibility of redemption arcs for some of these people but I won’t hold my breath. I know there will also be those who question why I’m targeting the women of MAGA for satire over the men. My answer is, I am more hopeful for redemption for the women involved.  

I also believe white, cis-gender, straight sized women have used their voices a lot in recent years to attack transgender women (I’m looking at you J.K. Rowling), women of colour and fat people. I felt it was important, as a white, cis-gender, straight sized woman to hold my fellows accountable.

What do you want audiences to take away from the show?

I want audiences to walk out of the show invigorated and ready to fight fascism, hopefully having had a laugh and maybe a little cry if they need it.

Leigh Douglas brings ROTUS: Receptionist of the United States to London’s Park Theatre from Tue 20 Jan – Sat 7 Feb 2026. Tickets available HERE

www.parktheatre.co.uk

All images by Damian Robertson

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