‘Shock’ factor
Liz Sankarsingh is Angela in Echo Theatre’s production of Natural Shocks Coming out helped director Sasha Maya Ada level up for Echo’s ‘Natural Shocks’ RICH LOPEZ | Staff writerrich@dallasvoice.com Echo Theatre celebrates playwright Lauren Gunderson this season with a mini-festival of her works opening this week.
The company — which gives focus to works by womyn — will open its season with Natural Shocks: A One-woman Play in the Middle of a Tornado, directed by Sasha Maya Ada.
The show is centered on, of all things, an insurance agent. Stuck in a basement with a tornado outside and a gun in her hand, the character Angela is weathering her own internal storm. “I think Lauren Gunderson is one of the best writers of our age,” Ada said by phone. “She’s skillfully adapted and broke down Hamlet’s ‘To be or not to be speech’ for this story.” Angela, played by Liz Sankarsingh (understudied by Leslie Patrick), makes her living selling insurance, but when she’s trapped during a tornado storm, she comes face to face with her own demons and finds some realizations about her own life. “There’s this contemplation of life and death and what it takes to exist,” Ada said.
In her own way, Ada finds parallels with the character — only her situation is not as dramatic as Angela’s circumstances. Stuck inside with your own thoughts — well maybe there is some drama.
