Stuart Smith is what would seem to be an average man. He enjoys sports, travel, going to the theatre, eating out and socialising and also the odd quiz and crossword.

So who would suspect that he was building a man-eating plant?

He arrived in Bermuda on October 9th in order to build a man-eating plant for Warwick Academy's production of Little Shop of Horrors.

He left on October 19th for Huddersfield, England, where he is currently employed.

This means he had only about two weeks to build four plants — the last being a giant man-eating one!

Mr. Smith designs and builds theatre sets. He has his own business called SAS productions.

From a young age he was very interested in building things, and did his A level in Design and Technology.

In his last year of Sixth Form, he became quite interested in pursuing a career in design.

At university he studied many things from civil engineering to electronic communications.

However, he didn't quite know he was going to get involved in theatre until a friend introduced him to theatre set design.

His first project in theatre was painting the car Greased Lightening for a stage production of Grease.

His first major set design project was for the play Oliver in the 1990s.

Now Warwick Academy will benefit from his expertise. Little Shop of Horrors is the story of a Seymour, a gawky young man who is the employee of a flower shop owner and is secretly in love with his co-worker, Audrey.

Just when the owner threatens to close the shop due to lack of business, Seymour finds an odd plant which gains the shop publicity and keeps the store open.

Seymour names the plant after Audrey. When Audrey II starts to wilt, Seymour is desperate to keep it alive. When the plant's strange appetite for blood is revealed, it puts everyone in Seymour's life in danger.

While in Bermuda, Mr. Smith built four plants that show the various growing stages of Audrey II.

All are operated by one man, but the last two Audrey IIs need to be operated by a strong man as the fourth and largest one is two metres squared in height and length!

The different Audrey IIs are made from a variety of materials such as wood, chicken wire, upholstery fabric and cushions.

When I asked Mr. Smith what he thinks the most interesting part about the plant is, he said, "Seeing everyone's reaction".

When further asked how the plant works and if it really eats a person, he said, "You have to see the show to see how it works!"

Little Shop of Horrors is the latest production from the very active Drama Department at Warwick Academy.

Little Shop of Horrors, or as we call it, LSOH, will be playing at Warwick Academy on December 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th.

Tickets will go on sale on November 8th, call the main school office at 236-1917.

Then come see if anyone's eaten alive by Mr. Smith's giant Audrey II.