Inside ROTUS: The Edinburgh Fringe Hit Bringing Political Satire to the Park Theatre

Following a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe, ROTUS: Receptionist of the United States

transfers to London’s Park Theatre for its London debut. The show explores contemporary American conservatism through the fictional character of White House press aide Chastity Quirke. In this interview, the show’s creator, Leigh Douglas discusses refining the work for a London theatre audience, the evolving political landscape since the show’s debut, and how recent developments in US politics have shaped this new iteration of ROTUS

After the success of Edinburgh, what felt most important to refine or develop for the Park Theatre run?

Going into the first day of previews in Edinburgh, I wasn’t sure if people were coming to the show to grieve, sound an alarm, rage against the machine or just have a laugh at Donald Trump’s expense. After being onstage doing the show every day for the month of the fringe, I think the answer was a little of all of the above. I had days when audiences were uproarious and ready to laugh and I also had days when people had clearly come to do some grieving. Sometimes, I saw a single audience member go on a journey from one to the other and back again. Regardless, people were having strong emotional reactions and I want to make sure this iteration of the show allows space for that. What’s incredible is that people clearly are not apathetic about what’s happening in America. If people have come for catharsis, I want to give that to them in this London run of ROTUS. I want the funny parts of the show in this run to be even more riotous and anarchic and the dramatic moments to be even more thoughtful. There’s a lot to grieve about what’s happening in America, and I (respectfully) don’t want ROTUS to feel like a stiff upper lip English funeral. As a proud Irish American, I want it to feel a raucous, life-affirming Irish wake. Hopefully, audiences leave having had a laugh and maybe a little cry, ready to fight fascism. 

How does staging ROTUS in London rather than in a festival setting shift the energy or expectations of the show?

Festival audiences and London theatregoers are both very discerning audiences. The key difference is fringe goers are prepared to see work that is rough and ready. There’s a lot of fun to be had in treating Edinburgh like a treasure hunt and seeing everything weird and wacky you possibly can, in hopes that you might be one of the first people to stumble on a gem. One reviewer did liken my Edinburgh venue to a broom cupboard and it’s true, the room was tiny. I was performing within touching distance of most of my audience everyday. In London, there’s more of an expectation for polish and production value. It’s exciting to get to execute a more fully realised version of the show. Our lighting designer, Rachel Sampley, will have a lot more to play with at the Park and I’m really excited to see what she brings to ROTUS in a purpose built theatre. Chastity is also a larger than life character and the physical limitations of the space in Edinburgh meant I had to work hard to contain my energy as a performer. The physical space at the Park will mean I get to have even more fun with the performance without being quite so in the audience’s face. I’m making sure to get my cardio in before I go into rehearsals to be match fit and I’m excited to get to perform Chastity without the feeling of being boxed in.  

Has your relationship to Chastity changed now that you’re stepping into her for a second, more established run?

Chastity has become a bit of a drag persona for me. The minute I have those kitten heels on my feet and that blonde wig on my head, I feel intensely powerful. I have to say, despite my finding a lot of her views abhorrent, I have a lot of affection for her. As a Londoner, a queer woman, and a disenchanted snowflake, I don’t have a lot of moral certainty about anything. Stepping into the role of Chastity with all her self-righteous moral certitude is a welcome mental vacation. I admire her drive, her will to win, and her tenacity. As an Irish woman who often finds herself apologising to inanimate objects, it’s also fun to play at being so unapologetically ambitious. Chastity is loveably flawed, she’s bigoted in moments. She’s dogmatic. She’s insufferable in many ways. But it’s delicious getting to have her confidence for an hour.

Since the Fringe, US politics has shifted again. Have recent events made the satire feel sharper, stranger, or even more on-the-nose?

Almost a year on from when I first wrote ROTUS, America under the Donald Trump administration is looking dystopian in ways I couldn’t have imagined in January of 2024. It’s been horrifying to watch the ICE raids, the warmongering and the plight of the many innocent people caught in the crossfires of Trump’s haphazard second-term agenda. There’s a sensitivity to be had there tonally in terms of the real human cost of some of these policies. However, there is also a riotous positivity to the many varied protest movements that have gained momentum in the last year. The No Kings protests alone have been glorious to witness. Whereas in January last year I wrote the show in a blind panic for the future, a year on, I’d like to capture some of the energy of that resistance in the show. It has also been fascinating to watch as figures like Karoline Leavitt have proved enduring. I absolutely feel the need to be responsive to that. Her press briefings continue to feel like something out of a dark comedy but she clearly has sticking power. Unlike some of the Trump women who came before her, Karoline Leavitt is not fading out of the picture. It was Cassisy Hutchinson who served as the original inspiration for the show. Karoline Leavitt is a newer brand of Republican woman to someone like Cassidy Hutchinson. Cassidy Hutchinson is mannered, softly spoken and smiley, quite a classic cut of American conservative woman. In fact, she calls herself a Ronald Reagan republican and speaks about Mitt Romney in glowing terms. In contrast, Karoline Leavitt is far from a demure figure. Her razor sharp tongue in the White House Press Briefing Room is a reflection of how emboldened Gen Z Republican women are feeling to brandish their conservative views like a horse whip. There’ll be a bit more of Karoline Leavitt in Chastity Quirke this time around. The age of the demure Republican woman is over.

Do you ever feel pressure to keep up with the pace of real political chaos or is Chastity’s world intentionally frozen in its own reality?

Chastity lives in a mirror image world to ours. It would be impossible to continuously update the show with the amount of news that is being made each and every day of Trump Part II. What the show can do however is tonally shift to reflect what’s happening in the real world. Chastity works in a White House that looks a lot like the Donald Trump Administration but she and all the people around her are intentionally fictionalized. I don’t want the show to get bogged down in the detail of day to day politics. From an artistic perspective, I think it’s more important to grab people’s attention with the big picture rather than the minutiae. 

What do you hope UK audiences will take from the show at this particular political moment?

The United States is a case study for the global rise of the Right. Conservatism is as popular in pop culture as it is politically. Reality tv like The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and viral social media accounts Ballerina Farm are making relatively extreme conservative lifestyles and gender roles aspirational to women in the United States and beyond. At the same time, men in Britain are being radicalised by the influencers of the manosphere just as they are in the United States. Not only men, but as my friends who work in Theatre in Education frequently tell me, children and boys are absorbing these views at an alarming rate. The point being, where the United States leads culturally, the United Kingdom often follows. With the fall of Roe V. Wade, mass deportation and Donald Trump’s flagrant use of derogatory language such as the R slur, that has implications for women, asylum seekers, communities of colour, the disabled community, and marginalised groups of all kinds in Britain. This is not a uniquely American problem. It is a cultural movement that is equally taking grip over Britain. There are therefore lessons to be learned for the UK from what’s happening in America. Part of why I want to put Chastity in front of UK audiences is to draw attention to how the influencer you follow, the reality tv show you love to hate or the podcast you listen to is in fact not apolitical, but overtly political content. I would love for audience members who come to the show who might consider themselves to be to leave feeling more politically awake and engaged. We cannot afford to be apolitical in 2025 and we need to be media literate in terms of how the media and entertainment we consume is platforming political agendas.

Do you think conservative femininity is changing, or doubling down, in 2026?

To understand how conservative femininity has evolved, all you have to do is compare the last two Republican first ladies, Laura Bush and Melania Trump. Conservative femininity used to be synonymous with a buttoned-up church lady in pearls who balked at “cussing” and whose finishing school education was offended by bad manners a la Emily Gilmore. In this new era for conservatism it is liberals who are accused of being uptight. Donald Trump’s election victory in 2024 has given permission to a generation of Gen Z conservatives to throw political correctness out the window and finally make all the offensive jokes they’ve ever dreamed of making. Young rich singles in New York City are “coming out” as conservative and going to Make American Hot Again parties. Those who have embraced the Make America Hot Again lifestyle are giddy at having a safe space to make racist, fatphobic, transphobic, homophobic and ableist jokes. The conservative femininity of Barbara and Laura Bush is a distant memory. New media organizations aimed at conservative women like The Conservateur are gaining cultural relevance and a place in the zeitgeist by accusing Vogue of “glamorising evil.” These conservative women want to reclaim the hotness of a 90s supermodel. They are disturbed by the idea that the definition of sexy has stretched to include anyone who doesn’t look like Heidi Klum, Cindi Crawford or Naomi Campbell. They reserve the right to call someone ugly and if that person is modeling in Vogue they call it left-wing propaganda. They are claiming hotness for themselves and explicitly link their adherence to traditional beauty standards to their value as women and their moral superiority over women who they see as less attractive. We are not in Kansas anymore.  

ROTUS: Receptionist of the United States is at Park Theatre from 20^th January – 7^th February 2026. Tickets available HERE.