{"id":88721,"date":"2026-04-23T09:44:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T16:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/?p=88721"},"modified":"2026-04-23T09:44:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T16:44:49","slug":"theater-news-two-local-women-oriented-plays-open-this-weekend-to-make-you-laugh-and-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/eat-see-do-2\/do\/theater-news-two-local-women-oriented-plays-open-this-weekend-to-make-you-laugh-and-think","title":{"rendered":"Theater News: Two local women-oriented plays open this weekend to make you laugh and think"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome to Theater News, a regular column by longtime reviewer Anita W. Harris. Look for it most Thursdays. Or\u00a0sign up<\/a>\u00a0for our Eat. See. Do. newsletter to get it in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a still patriarchal world, women are sometimes forced into difficult decisions and actions, which can be so extreme as to be not only dangerous but humorous. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two plays opening in Long Beach this weekend focus on such women \u2014 Long Beach Playhouse\u2019s \u201cPOTUS\u201d and California Repertory\u2019s \u201cThe Pliant Girls\u201d \u2014 and each will make you laugh, maybe cry, but certainly think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Preview photo of Long Beach Playhouse’s upcoming “POTUS,” courtesy of the theater.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Long Beach Playhouse<\/strong> is staging \u201cPOTUS\u201d<\/strong> (acronym for president of the United States) in its upstairs Studio Theatre beginning this weekend, a collaboration with Costa Mesa Playhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This zany political farce that playwright Selina Fillinger wrote after the 2016 presidential election is subtitled \u201cor, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As that subtitle suggests, the play features seven women, including the president\u2019s chief of staff, press secretary, sister, First Lady\u2026 and young mistress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen the president unwittingly spins a PR nightmare into a global crisis, the seven brilliant and beleaguered women he relies upon most risk life, liberty, and the pursuit of sanity to keep the commander-in-chief out of trouble,\u201d the Playhouse says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The play will make you giggle, but also wonder, \u201cWhy is a woman not president?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPOTUS\u201d runs April 26 to May 23 at the Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre, 5021 E. Anaheim St., with shows Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. For tickets and information, call the box office at 562-494-1014 or visit <\/em>LBPlayhouse.org<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Promo image for California Repertory’s upcoming “The Pliant Girls,” courtesy of the theater. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

California Repertory<\/strong>, the producing arm of Cal State Long Beach\u2019s theater department, is staging \u201cThe Pliant Girls\u201d<\/strong> beginning this weekend as well, in the campus\u2019 Studio Theatre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Playwright Meghan Brown based her work on an ancient Greek play by Aeschylus called \u201cThe Suppliants,\u201d about a large family of sisters forced to marry their cousins but who rebelliously murder their husbands on their wedding night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFifty sisters. Fifty weddings. Zero say in the matter,\u201d Cal Rep describes. Bloody and desperate, the women flee their homeland, seeking refuge and asylum in another place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown\u2019s play focuses on five of the sisters, each recounting their experiences through monologues and flashbacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese young women fight, joke, panic, scheme and refuse to be quietly married off to their cousins,\u201d the theater says. \u201cFierce, funny and sharply contemporary, \u2018The Pliant Girls\u2019 flips an ancient myth into a bold, feminist rebellion, where sisterhood becomes survival strategy, humor becomes weaponry and freedom comes at a sprint.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcome to the world of women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Pliant Girls\u201d runs April 23 to May 2 at CSULB\u2019s Studio Theater, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., with shows most nights at 7:30 p.m., and a matinee on Saturday, May 2 at 2 p.m. For tickets and information, visit <\/em>CSULB.edu<\/em><\/a>. Run time is 90 minutes with no intermission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two plays opening in Long Beach this weekend \u2014 Long Beach Playhouse\u2019s \u201cPOTUS\u201d and California Repertory\u2019s \u201cThe Pliant Girls\u201d \u2014 will make you laugh, maybe cry, but certainly think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":88724,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32367],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[32310],"class_list":["post-88721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-do","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88721"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88726,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88721\/revisions\/88726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88721"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=88721"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=88721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}