By Amanda Knox

ArtsWest is signing off their 2014-2015 season with a show that artistic director Mathew Wright admits is “ridiculous.” It’s thigh-jiggling, cornflake-tossing, spiky-haired fun.

It’s also much more than that. What ultimately strikes one about this story are the nerves. Larry the lawyer (Mark Tyler Miller) has got a lot of nerve to demand that his grape juice be “hand-squeezed.” Tim the teenager (Trent Moury) has got a lot of nerve to demand that his mom quit having fun lest she come across as cooler than he is. Punk-rock club owner Lewd Fingers (Brian Lange) has got a lot of nerve...well, clearly.

But the heart of the story is that the four heroines—Jetta (Chelsea LeValley), Carol (Ann Cornelius), Bev (Heather Hawkins), and Wendi (Janet McWilliams)—are unfulfilled females who have every reason to be on edge and find unexpected catharsis in letting loose with nerve and nervousness.

There are some particularly choice moments that demonstrate this. Before Jetta ever takes the stage to head bang, gag herself with cellophane, and belt, “I am not your slave!”, she must first admit to herself—in a song that showcases LeValley’s vocal aptitude for strength and gentleness—that the home she worked so hard to build and maintain for her husband and child is for herself not a home at all. Divorced and alone, what strikes the audience more than Carol’s oral fixation is her admission that she “lives vicariously” and Cornelius’s unabashed full-body rendition of her desperate hunger for human touch that is both comedic and tragic.

It all comes together with the palpably jittery nerves that quake through these female characters leading up to and following their punk performances onstage. Whether this nervousness was the result of empathetic acting or the actual jittery nerves of the actors launching into furiously vulnerable stunts is inconsequential. The audience comes away feeling as awkward and inspired as the actors themselves, and the characters they play.

Special mention goes to choreographer Troy Wageman for a hilariously vaudeville “Betsy Moberly” and the simple and moving coupling of the male and female characters during “On Saturday Night” that reverses traditional gender roles.

Angry Housewives is being performed at ArtWest Theatre (4711 California Ave SW) April 23-May 24, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:30pm, Sundays at 3pm. Tickets cost $17-$36.50 and may be bought at the box office or at this link: .