From ACTORS COLLABORATIVE TOLEDO
Inspired by the words of Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy, Lauren Gunderson’s “Natural Shocks” is 60-minute, one-woman tour-de-force play thatbursts to life when we meet Angela, who’s waiting out an approaching tornado in her basement.
She brims over with quirks, stories, and confessions. As the real danger grows imminent, she reveals a final secret that brings the reality of guns in America into sharp focus. Cindy Bilby stars in the area’s first staging of this provocative and meaningful play. “Natural Shocks” is part confessional, part stand-up, and part reckoning.
“Natural Shocks” will be presented by Actors Collaborative Toledo and will be performed at the Toledo Repertoire Theatre at 16th Tenth St., Toledo Tickets are on sale at www.toledorep.org. The play will performed in front of a limited (socially distanced) audience and live streamed on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 5 and 6 at 8 p.m. and on Sunday, Feb. 7 at 2:30 p.m.
Ms. Gunderson, one of the country’s most produced playwright’s calls the play “a comedy…until it’s not.” Gunderson stated, “I wrote the story to continue to push the narrative away from the perpetrators of gun violence and toward the people whose lives are lost, shattered, and shadowed because of it. So many of these people are women. And there is such a tight connection between violence against women and gun violence.”
This is director Jeffrey Albright’s third time directing Ms. Bilby is a Gunderson play. They have previously collaborated on Ms. Gunderson’s “Bauer” and “Silent Sky. “Mr. Albright describes Ms. Bilby as a “gifted and natural storyteller. She has the unique ability to draw an audience in and hold them captive by her words. Her performance will keep the audience on the edge of their seats.”
“Natural Shocks” will be presented by Actors Collaborative Toledo and will be performed at the Toledo Repertoire Theatre at 16th Tenth St., Toledo Tickets are on sale at www.toledorep.org. The play will performed in front of a limited (socially distanced) audience and live streamed on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 5 and 6 at 8 p.m. and on Sunday, Feb. 7 at 2:30 p.m.
