ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — “Natural Shocks” a one-woman show by Lauren Gunderson, is running from April 2-12 at the BeBe Theatre, 20 Commerce St. Find tickets here.
“Natural Shocks” is produced by Nemesis Theatre Company, directed by Melon Wedick and stars Trinity Smith Keel as Angela, with sound and additional voice work by Franklin Keel. The costume designer and stage manager is Christine Caldemeyer, lighting design is by Jason Williams and Jered Shults served as movement consultant.
The show contains explicit discussion of domestic violence, gun violence and situations that may be disturbing to some audiences.
“Natural Shocks” review
“Natural Shocks” is the debut show under Nemesis Theatre Company’s new contemporary works banner, ArchNemesis. Nemesis is known for its creative reimaginings of Shakespeare plays, casting classics like “Romeo and Juliet” and “Hamlet” in a new light through a couple of modern flourishes. “Natural Shocks,” meanwhile, was first staged in 2018, making it the most recent work Nemesis has tackled by a couple hundred years. However, lest fans were concerned the theatre company had strayed too far from the Bard, “Natural Shocks” quickly reveals its Shakespearean influences.
The show is thematically modeled after the famous “To be, or not to be” soliloquy from “Hamlet.” While “Natural Shocks” strips away some of the context of the speech – Angela, the show’s protagonist, is not a Danish prince contemplating suicide, per se – it embodies its energy wholeheartedly. In “Natural Shocks,” Angela is on the brink of action, determining what to do with her life and her future as she awaits the arrival of an oncoming storm. Like Hamlet, she teeters between choices, weighing the past and future in frozen indecision. Unlike his famed monologue, however, Angela involves the audience in her actions.
The thing that makes “Natural Shocks” the perfect kind of material for a black box theater show – the BeBe Theatre seats around 49 people – is its interactivity. The set design of the show is immersive, seating the audience in chairs along the edges of a basement living room. At the outset of the performance, Wedick explained that the audience were now figments of Angela’s imagination, and may participate in her monologue with the occasional interjection, or be given props during the show to hold. Through these moments of fourth wall breaking, Angela brings her audience into an intimate, confessional setting.
Keel is terrific as the character. Angela is an insurance agent fraying at the edges, anxious, neurotic and a compulsive liar. At the same time, she is charming, funny and an easy character to spend an hour with. Keel embodies her with pinwheeling energy, careening from one corner of the set to the next. Her monologue has the same frenetic dynamics, bouncing between manic comedy and dark rumination.
Even the sound design of the show has a sort of “piercing the veil” quality. Franklin Keel’s live score from the sound booth powerfully set the tone of the evening. The visible effect the music has on Angela is impressive, but the music also modulates according to what Angela tells it to do. The sound designer and actor were humming in perfect harmony.
“Natural Shocks,” naturally, has a shocking ending. Its revelations bring the show from an entertaining, occasionally perplexing evening to a disturbing, resonant experience. Shakespeare may be classic, but “Natural Shocks” is unique. I look forward to more work from ArchNemesis in the future. Seek this one out.