Sunday, June 5th, 2011
Iowa River Players has started on their summer musical, “Little Shop of Horrors”. The shop referred to in the title is actually a florist shop that has one very unusual plant: a carnivorous plant named “Audry 2” or “Twoey”. The hero of the story, Seymour, has nurtured the plant from an undernourished weakling to (by the end of the play) a demon-possessed monster. He has even named the plant after Audrey, the girl of his dreams.
In truth “Little Shop of Horrors” is something of a morality play. As in “Faust” by Goethe, the main character is tempted by the devil. Audrey 2 is undoubtedly a most devilish plant.
Props for Little Shop of Horrors will be very unusual, too. “Twoey” the plant, has to grow from the size that would fit in a coffee can to a plant that monopolizes the entire stage.
The cast is busily making steam punk accessories to go with the director’s concept for the play. For the unschooled, “steam punk” is alternate history, and speculative fiction, rising out of the 1980’s and early 90’s. It includes the technology of such fictional machines as those found in the works of Jules Verne or H. G. Wells, or even real technologies such as the computer or cell phone but as if developed at an earlier point in history.
Since the play takes place in a florist shop, IRP requests donations of any silk floral arrangements that might be otherwise headed for the Goodwill truck. Anyone who thinks they have something that might fill the bill, please call Luanne Krabbe at 641-444-4220 or Jon and Becky Ahrendsen at 515-532-2565.