Real Art Ways Hartford, CT
​Sir Peter Crane
Dean of the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and a Professor of Botany, Yale University
Little Shop of Horrors (1960)— The Science of Carnivorous Plants
Program Description
Sir Peter Crane gave a talk on carnivorous plants.
Presented At
Real Art Ways Hartford, CT
Film Synopsis
A nerdy florist finds his chance for success and romance with the help of a giant man-eating plant who demands to be fed.
B-movie maestro Roger Corman famously shot this cult classic in only two days and a night. When Skid Row plant-shop owner Gravis Mushnick (Mel Welles) threatens to fire his hapless clerk Seymour Krelboyne (Jonathan Haze), Seymour brings in a new species of plant he's been breeding at home, hoping it will lead the shop to fame and fortune and save his job. Turns out, the plant (voiced by Levi Stubbs), named Audrey Junior after Seymour's sweet but bubble-headed crush and co-worker (Jackie Joseph), not only talks, but also needs a special kind of food to survive: human flesh and blood. With its inspired script by Charles Griffith, its outrageous premise, and its hilarious performances, this black comedy helped establish Corman as an underground legend.
About the Speaker
Sir Peter Crane, dean of the school of forestry and environmental studies and a professor of botany at Yale University whose work focuses on the diversity of plant life: its origin and fossil history, current status, and conservation and use. Dean Crane has been the director of the Field Museum in Chicago and the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, one of the largest and most influential botanical gardens in the world. He was elected to the Royal Society (the UK academy of sciences) in 1998. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and a member of the German Academy Leopoldina. He was knighted in the UK for services to horticulture and conservation in 2004. Dean Crane currently serves on the board of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas, and the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation.