For Audrey 2 in Selma’s ‘Little Shop of Horrors,’ garlic and rosemary add the gourmet touch
The plant is in the house.
You can’t have “Little Shop of Horrors” without Audrey 2, the famed antagonist in the cult-classic musical about a “strange and interesting” plant with a taste for human blood. For Selma Arts Center, which opens the show Friday, March 18, this character features the talents of I Adeficha voicing the role. We caught up with the actor to get to know this twisted autotrophic organism of a character a little better. They graciously gave us a few minutes during tech week for a rare, candid interview.
Q: I understand you’re mean, green and from outer space. That’s a long way to travel. Did you get airline points?
A: Oh honey, who needs airline points when you own the skies!
Q: So, regarding the outer-space thing — and not to get too plot picky with a musical based on a cheesy B movie — if you can only survive on human blood, what do you eat on your own planet?
A: Between you and me, it’s a myth that my kind can only survive on human blood. Frankly, I love a good ratatouille. Ooo! and spanakopita – I drool! But you can’t fuel world conquest on twigs and berries, baby.
Q: What’s on your Spotify playlist these days?
A: Empire State of Mind – Jay Z, Monster – Kanye West, Confident – Demi Lovato, anything Audra (you know she’s one of mine, right?).
Q: Psychologists have described your role in the play as that of the human id, or the unrestrained beast in all of us. Seymour’s superego, or conscience, struggles with the morality of feeding people he knows to you. And his ego, which tries to mediate the two, hopes for a compromise. With all this in mind, if given the chance, would you have eaten Sigmund Freud?
A: Mmm…a little gamey for my taste.
Q: Do you ever use condiments? (sriracha mayo, potassium fertilizer, Cattlemen’s barbecue sauce, for example)?
Q: Baby, blood is its own condiment. But, a little garlic and rosemary infused hemoglobin, or jerk plasma – mmm, it’s to kill for!
Q: I know you have a very strict don’t-eat-the-actors clause in your contract, but if you weren’t bound by that, whom would you eat first? Director Chris Ortiz-Belcher, Adrian Ammsso (who plays Seymour) or Arts Council Member Juan Luis Guzman?
A: I’d really like to sink my vines into Council Chairman Erik Anderson. There’s nothing more appetizing than power. But Vice-Chairman Juan Luis would make a lovely after-dinner mint.
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Q. Do you worry about being typecast? What other Broadway roles would you like to tackle?
A: Oh sweetie, no. I can’t be typecast because I can’t be categorized. I. CONTAIN. MULTITUDES. Literally. I’ve consumed scores of humans. And every person I eat becomes as much a part of me as I do of them. It makes me a very versatile performer.
Q: Anything else you’d like to say?
A: Come see “Little Shop of Horrors” at the Selma Arts Center! It can get tiring playing yourself over and over to sold out buffets – I mean theaters! – of adoring fans, but under Chris Ortiz-Belcher’s direction I really get to stretch my legs in a new way. You don’t want to miss!
Show info
Little Shop of Horrors, a Selma Arts Center production. Continues through April 2. Tickets are $21 general, $19 students and seniors, $15 children under 13.
