NATURAL SHOCKS

April 2–12, 2026

BeBe Theatre, 20 Commerce Street, Asheville NC

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Important: Content Warning

“gripping, important, and critical, full of tension, mystery, and weight”

“Trinity Smith Keel is remarkable […] humorous, anxious, and heart-breaking”

—Brian Postelle, Asheville Stages review

NATURAL SHOCKS 

by Lauren Gunderson

“A one-woman play in a tornado”

Statistics-obsessed insurance agent Angela races into her basement to escape an oncoming storm. Trapped below ground, she confronts the events and relationships of her life—the heartbreaking, the hair-raising, and the hilarious—in a narrative that hurtles from pound cake to Disney World to Best Buy to Hamlet to her bold plan for a beautiful future. Resilient, funny, optimistic, dishonest, and not sorry for herself, Angela cracks wise, lies, and eventually lets the audience in on the biggest secret of all—the truth—as she waits for the storm to break.

“It’s all statistics until it’s happening to you. Then it’s happening 100 percent.”

CONTENT WARNING: Domestic violence; references to gun violence, parental illness and death, natural disasters; homeowners’ insurance jokes

Click this text for a more specific content warning (contains show spoilers)

This show contains explicit and potentially disturbing content about spousal domestic violence and resulting death. No violence is depicted live onstage; however, it is described. A threatening atmosphere is evoked. Blood is shown. The show takes place inside the basement of a house where the main character is trapped while their abusive spouse is upstairs, intent on harming the main character.

DATES & TIMES:

Thursday, April 2, 7:30pm
Friday, April 3, 7:30pm
Saturday, April 4, 7:30pm
Sunday, April 5, 2pm
Thursday, April 9, 7:30pm
Friday, April 10, 7:30pm
Saturday, April 11, 2pm
Sunday, April 12, 2pm

$30 general admission; Thursdays half-price ($15); 10% off for ATA Members (using the code on the ATA event page);

Industry discount available by emailing melon [at] nemesistheatre.com with the subject “NS Theatre Discount Code”

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Featuring:

Trinity Smith Keel as Angela

Trinity Smith Keel (Angela) has worked with nearly every theatre in WNC over the span of roughly 2 decades. Most recent appearances include: Madeline in Jeeves in Bloom (NC Stage); Agnes in She Kills Monsters (Montford Park Players); Henrietta Leavitt in Silent Sky (Multiverse Theatre at HART); Mary Bennet in Christmas at Pemberly (Multiverse Theatre), Ophelia in Living Dead in Denmark (Montford Park Players), and Black Comedy (Parkway Playhouse).

Original Live Sound by Franklin Keel

Franklin Keel (BM – Eastman School of Music) is the Associate Principal Cellist with the Asheville Symphony Orchestra, founding cellist of the Opal String Quartet, and cellist/singer/songwriter with Upland Drive and Sirius.B.  He has appeared as a featured soloist with the Asheville Symphony, the Hendersonville Symphony, the Brevard Philharmonic, and the Blue Ridge Orchestras; and he has shared the concert stage with Emmanuel Ax, Béla Fleck, Warren Haynes, Boyz II Men, the Steep Canyon Rangers, the Jasper String Quartet, Bright Eyes, Kishi Bashi, Ben Sollee, Free Planet Radio, the Jon Stickley Trio, the J-Lloyd Mashup, Jane Kramer, Ben Phantom, and the Get Right Band.  A passionate educator, Mr. Keel has taught orchestra for Henderson County Public Schools as well as private cello and chamber music lessons for countless students of all ages.  He currently serves as the orchestra director at Asheville Middle and High Schools and is the strings coach for the Asheville Symphony Youth Orchestra. instagram and TikTok: @franklinplayscello

Directed by Melon Wedick
Stage Manager Christine Caldemeyer
Lighting Design Jason Williams
Costume Design Christine Caldemeyer
Set & Props Design Melon Wedick

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NATURAL SHOCKS is the inaugural production of Nemesis’s contemporary-works sister company, ARCHNEMESIS. Read more about ARCHNEMESIS here.