Forget all of the other apocalyptic scenarios presented by scientists and fiction writers. The world is going to end through man-eating plants. Brought to life by McNeil’s theater department, The Little Shop of Horrors features a horrific circumstance regarding a twisted romance and an upgrade of a shop, but the downfall of the planet. With a venus fly-trap alien species, it’s The Hunger Games all over again – but this time, the feast is on human blood.

Set in a struggling florist’s shop owned by Mr. Mushnik (Will Nakata) in downtown Skid Row, the audience comes face to face with the protagonist Seymour, who is played by senior Keith Gruber. Stuck in a “love” triangle, his love interest Audrey (Sophie Niles), also another employee of the shop, is found in an abusive and sadistic relationship with her boyfriend Orin (Keaton Brandt). Things suddenly change when one day Seymour stumbles upon a strange plant and brings it to the shop to attract customers.

Whether the plant attracts other unfortunate events is for the audience to find out.

Without revealing spoilers, senior Nell Buechler was enthralled with the show. “Overall, the play was beautiful,” Buechler said. “I’ve seen the movie before so I thought I knew what to expect from the play but I was surprised with the deviation that the play has from the movie. I loved Seymour’s moral conflict over whether to do the right thing or do the thing that would get him rich. Also, the villains in the show were just so great that you didn’t feel any remorse when they got what was coming to them (or when you thought they were going to get what was coming to them).”

The visual effects and props on the set were also extraordinary. Flashing lights animated the scene, and the colors created the mood; providing bloodless death scenes in firetruck red and murky green hues in times of creeping evil. Needless to say, the plant, named Audrey II, is a piece of art, with four different versions, each increasing in size. The main puppeteers Jackie McKenna and Nathan Painter did a great job bringing Audrey II to life, and D’Mariel Jones lent his voice to add personality.

“The visual effects that they created with the puppeteering was amazing and it really added to the believability that a giant plant was up on stage singing and interacting with the other actors,” Buechler said.

The actors themselves were amazing. Niles did research on abused women in relationships to psychologically understand how Audrey felt outside of her stage lines. To say the least, the work played its part. But out of all of the actors, there were also some personal favorites by the crowd.

“The entire cast was amazing,” junior Abigail Davis said. “It’s hard to choose, but I was especially impressed by Keaton. He was hilarious and fully committed to his crazy character.”

Other than for entertainment purposes, the play holds a deep message about ethical values and human morals. The sacrifice and worth of one human life in regards to others is brought to question as the play progresses.

“This plot centers around a very important idea,” junior Abigail Davis said. “That sometimes ignoring the right thing to do provides money and power, but that this sacrifice will often lead to suffering.”

I hope that throughout this article I have planted your interest for the show. The good news is that this plant won’t be man-eating. If you are interested in seeing the popular production, tickets will be sold at weekend two for performances on Jan. 28, 29, and 30 at 7 p.m. Only 25 walk-in tickets are offered per show, so plan ahead. Reservations can be made online at http://find-mike-west1.mybigcommerce.com/little-shop-of-horrors/.
And remember, don’t feed the plants.