Little Shop Of Horrors Essay, Research Paper
Actor Critique Paper
Little Shop Horrors is a story about a man who finds an unusual plant in a Chinese market. The man, Seymour nurses the Venus flytrap like plant to full health by his blood. The plant wins him everything he could want, respect, love and money. All to be lost in unity at the end. The main plot of little shop of Horrors revolves around Seymour. Seymour’s ambition of Audrey to become his girlfriend. Seymour also wants respect from his boss and he also wants to make a little money. The play Little Shop of Horrors was written by Charles Griffith, the lyrics were created by Robert Billig, the music was composed by Robby Merkin, and the play was directed by marsha m. morgan.
The main actor of the play was Miles D. Farmer who played Seymour. The actor did a good job of portraying a “nerd”. The character Seymour is considered to be mothers by with a pocket protector and a squeaky high-pitched voice. The character was dressed in tight clothing and wore glasses that should have been taped together. Seymour works at a not to busy flower shop on Skid Row. The people with whom Seymour come into contact with take care of him and at the same time take advantage of him.
Miles did a good job in playing the part of Seymour. Seymour is a tense person who never truly grew up. The way Miles walked as Seymour was with closed legs and quick steps. The energy of the walk pushed up from the middle of the back and carried him along. The rhythm and movement of Seymour was sharp and jilted. The full body movement including hands and torso seemed incomplete and almost ashamed. Seymour’s facial expressions were somewhat twisted and looked constrained. The eyes were wide open the eyebrows were high and the mouth was tense. The head of Seymour was down and pointed toward the ground.
The volume of Seymour’s voice was loud and projected somewhat far. The pitch was high and squeaky. The overall quality of the voice was by far not the best. He is someone with whom you could only speak with for a short amount of time. Seymour would pause occasionally taking short breaths only to continue with more choppy sentences. When Seymour defends Audrey against Orin Scrivello DDS in the dentist office his voice was on the fritz. When the drill was turned on Seymour squirmed in his chair and his voice was louder and higher pitched than the drill. The inflection of his voice was very drastic it would be somewhat loud and than soft again. Overall the vocal quality was quite detailed and portrayed Seymour in a realistic perspective.
Miles did a good job of slipping into the role of Seymour. The character is an uptight person that has a lot of psychological and emotional problems. I believed in Seymour for who he was. The only way to fool an audience is to erase suspicion from their mind. For instance if the audience is suspect that you are acting than believability is already lost. I was able to pick up very small clues Miles used to evoke the character of Seymour. Miles would play with his glasses like Seymour would. He would also scratch his face and squint his eyes. This is what I would think Seymour would do subconcisouly. The reactions of Seymour were understandable. When Audrey II wanted to be feed for the first time Seymour was surprised to find out that the plant wanted blood instead of plant food. Another reaction that is understandable is when people wanted him on television for plant shows. Seymour reacted with surprise at first only to turn down the opportunity’s knowing that what he was truly doing feeding the plant was wrong.
The overall effectiveness of Miles performance was very good. I had little doubt in believing that he was not Seymour. From the tight and constrained walk to the high pitched and very dynamic voice the presentation was good. What worked the best for me was the use of voice. The way Miles used it made me see right into the character. When a person talks you can understand a lot about them. Where they grew up what kind of education they have acquired and what kind of family life they might have had. What didn’t work for me was the emotional truth. I had a hard time believing that Seymour may or may not of had a hard life. A person who may have been out cast from social situations would not act out like Seymour did. Although it does not take any thought to murder someone a plant would have a hard time changing my value system in order for it to survive. Seymour would or should have felt less at ease with himself after the first victim was feed to the plant. The performance as a whole was good and I would like to see it again.
Bibliography
watching the play itself.