By Marilyn Jozwik
It’s no wonder Next Act Theatre keeps returning to Lauren Gunderson for its productions. One of America’s most prolific playwrights, Gunderson keeps cranking out shows that are entertaining, compelling and relevant.
Previous Gunderson shows at Next Act include “The Revolutionists” and “The Book of Will,” among my favorites.
In Next Act’s latest offering, “Natural Shocks,” a one-woman show, Gunderson takes the audience on a wild ride through one harrowing hour in the life of Angela, played magnificently by Jennifer Vosters.
The show, directed by Michael Cotey, is available for streaming through June 13 at www.nextact.org.
Angela is frantic as she takes the viewer through her basement in anticipation of a tornado. We are captivated by the animated Angela, who pieces together her life as doom looms. We follow her through her basement that looks like it could be anybody’s – exposed rafters. boxes on shelves, dim lighting over work tables – recording herself at selfie length with her cell phone.
There’s a gun in her basement. “I don’t like guns,” says Angela. “(but) you need them in this messed up world.”
In Gunderson’s rapid-fire prose, Angela vents on life from her perspective as an insurance agent, confiding to her audience, “I can be glib and morbidly humorous.”
Vosters’ Angela gets in a zone when she talks about insurance. And her enthusiasm puts her audience in thrall – over insurance! Her explanations of all the types of insurance that cover everything from nuclear disasters to earthquakes and even reinsurers (who cover insurance companies in case of widespread disaster) are engrossing.
“I always have dice on me,” says Angela. “Roll them and meet your fate.”
She collects dice. She dissects probabilities. She seems obsessed with it. “Life is a game of chance,” she says.
Which brings her to Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and his “To be or not to be” speech and its words “the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks.” “To live, or not to live,” says Angela after quoting a large swath of the play.
Gunderson’s reasonings are so engaging and her one-liners nonstop. Angela morphs her passion for her work in insurance to diatribes on risk, chance, human fallibility – even Hamlet -- that are surprisingly mesmerizing. “People are fine with terrible perils as long as they control it,” says Angela, explaining why some people fear flying but embrace driving, which is far more dangerous.
Angela hypnotizes us with her wit and arguments that sometimes seem the ramblings of a terrorized woman. Yet, Gunderson is creating pieces to a marvelous puzzle that is Angela, including takes on Angela’s mother, her childhood and her relationships.
It all comes together in a tight knot as the storm descends on Angela. There is so much going on in the final moments that it is hard to take it all in, so we concentrate even more so as to understand the storm in Angela’s life. We have come to know Angela quite well and we feel for her and her situation, which is so much more than one person.
Next Act again uses this streaming opportunity to create intelligent and captivating theater with high production values that puts the audience in a terrifying, harm’s way experience. Vosters captures so many emotions in Angela – terror in what’s coming, wistful remembrances, the passions in her life – all with a wide blue-eyed, relatable, girl-next-door (albeit a smart one!) attitude. You can’t turn away.
Just a marvelous piece of theater.