Tornados, Hamlet, and Disney World aren t three things you d normally group together. For acclaimed Lauren Gunderson, it all makes sense. Though perhaps for Angela, the woman at the center of Gunderson s Natural Shocks, the threads may be straining. If Gunderson sounds like a familiar name to you, it s no coincidence. In 2020, Dramashop presented one of her best-known works, Silent Sky as an innovative production in the early weeks of the pandemic. Nationally, Gunderson also just so happens to be America s most popular living playwright. Written in 2018, Natural Shocks is a one-woman show that tells the story of Angela, a woman waiting out a tornado in her basement. Dramashops s production of
Marin Theatre Company to Digitally Premiere The Catastrophist, a New Play About Pandemics Local playwright Lauren Gunderson has written a new one-man play about virus hunter Nathan Wolfe and his prognostications about the economic impact of a pandemic before this one began. And now it s set to premiere virtually via the Marin Theatre Company this month. Gunderson, whose one-woman show Natural Shocks has been available to hear a radio play via Marin Theatre Company after its in-person premiere was canceled due to the pandemic last March, is actually married to Wolfe, and she says it hadn t occurred to her to write a play about him or his work until recently, for obvious reasons.