“It’s not a show about f*cking plants. It’s a show about plants f*cking.”
Synopsis: A comedic collage of erotica by, for and about plants (read aloud by a human). Steamy succulents. Lonely redwoods. Corn-ographic tales of crop pollination. A silly botanical f*ckfest. Houseplants get in free!
Tweet review: #mnfringe Erotica For Houseplants: If @tbreed wants to read me naughty plant stories, sing some songs and imitate a bee, I’m down for that. Laughing for 50 minutes is good for the soul - 5 stars
Though he admits at the start of the show, “This is just the dumbest idea I could come up with,” Tom Reed certainly commits to the premise. The Fringe show Erotica For Houseplants is both ridiculous and sexy, because Tom Reed is both ridiculous and sexy. Yes, it’s a whole show consisting of sexy material about plants - stories, poems, songs, single jokes that are a whole subject all by themselves. But Tom Reed has a way with words, and a way with a joke, and his voice, whether speaking or singing, can do anything he wants it to. So if he decides he wants this story about plants to be sexy, or sweet, or hilarious, that’s what it’s going to be.
“I can do it all - I sing, I dance, I’m poisonous to cats.”
A man gets back from work and tends to his houseplant (“You’re waiting for me when I get home, sitting on the kitchen counter wearing your favorite outfit - nothing…” and we’re off to the races.). A shy plant attends her first botanical orgy and unexpectedly meets someone nice. A guy gets a little too into the act of shucking and eating corn in front of his family. A Norwegian pine sings a love song to a cactus. An annual plant (which only lives for one season) defends their relationship with a much older perennial plant to the rest of the citizens of the garden. A horny old redwood tree helps us to see pollen in new ways. Tom imitates a bee - along with many other silly and sexy segments of the performance.
“Some wheat getting plowed by a hoe.”
Reed is also committed to the idea of houseplants getting the best seats at the show. There’s a place at the front of the stage to drop off your houseplant if you brought one with you. Someone in the audience for this show did, and Tom can spot the newcomers to the front of the stage. He made a point of going down to the front and having a chat with Steve, the hanging houseplant.
“You didn’t come here to pollinate yourself. You can do that at home.”
Erotica For Houseplants is exactly what the title promises. And Tom Reed has by now proven that he can make an amusing and satisfying Fringe show out of just about anything. So if you just want to relax and watch something completely ludicrous and laugh - a lot - then Erotica For Houseplants is your ticket. Tom still has four shows left - tonight 8/10 at 10pm, tomorrow 8/11 at 5:30pm, Friday 8/12 at 10pm, and finally Saturday 8/13 at 2:30pm.
5 Stars - Very Highly Recommended
(You can click on the following links to see a set of links to reviews of all the 5 and 4.5 star shows (VERY highly recommended), 4 and 3.5 star shows (highly recommended) as well as other shows, plus the full Top 10 list, the Top 11-20 list, a list of returning favorites, and the full coverage of the 2022 Fringe on this blog.)
(Side note: The primary may be over, but the midterm elections are coming up soon. Early voting for the election starts Friday, September 23 (so, not much more than a month after Fringe is over). You can check out what's on your ballot ahead of time on the Minnesota Secretary of State website, as well as other voting services and information - like handy links to all the candidates who have websites so you can learn more. In Minneapolis, not only do we have the Governor and Lt. Governor on the ballot, but there's our U.S. Congressional Rep., our MN State Senator, the MN Secretary of State and MN Attorney General, as well as our County Sheriff and County Attorney, and two members of the Minneapolis School Board. These are the people who decide what laws we live under and how they get enforced. These are the people who decide whether or not we have voting rights. These are the people who decide how our kids learn. This is how we change things. Personally, I'm alternately furious and despairing that my goddaughter and her little sister now have fewer rights over their own bodies than they did when 2022 began. There are things we can do, voting in the general election is one of them - if you're looking to volunteer, here's a place to learn more.)
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