I was sitting with a couple of my friends after a show, they had come to see the performance, and they had been thrilled with the production. They talked through their favorite pieces, although, they loved the entire show, each piece affected them differently. My friend's husband, (who, honestly, I wasn't sure if he was going to like the show) said, he really enjoyed it. Than he said, "but the plant fantasy, I thought that was way too out there."
"She wrote that one." His wife said.
"What? You wrote that one? I knew you wrote one but I said to S- there is no way she wrote that one." He said.
"She did." S- said.
"I did. I wrote that one." I said.
"What? You wrote that one!" Then he busted out laughing like it was the funniest thing he had heard in ages.
Funny thing about the plant fantasy is that it isn't an original idea, the first line of the monologue is 100% true: when I was a kid I found a stack of Heavy Metal magazines. Well, that's not entirely true, I didn't find them, they were my mother's, and she used to let me read them till one day, sometime around age five, she suddenly decided that maybe I shouldn't be reading those comics, so I was no longer allowed, but it was too late I had already read, and memorized the images of the woman being raped by space plants.
The best part about writing and sharing a fantasy that just seems so "out there", besides having my friend's husband laugh because he can't believe I wrote it, is when someone gets excited that you have just revealed their little secret, and finally, finally, they can tell someone about it:
My friend, B- is coming to see the show this Thursday, and she is very excited, she had heard my friend and her husband's rave, rave, reviews of the show, and she can't wait. Even before she had heard the reviews she was planning on coming. One day I had been telling her about the plant piece when suddenly she interrupted me and said, Oh My God, I've seem that comic too! I saw it when I was a kid, I had that in my head for years," then she giggled like she was a ten year old trying out a dirty word for the first time.
After Saturday's show, I was standing with another friend, and guy she knew. She was doing some personal PR work for the show telling everyone to see it (she has yet to see it, but her ass will be in a theatre chair this Thursday) and she said, "Adrienna has a fantasy about being screwed by plants." The guy gets all quiet for a moment, and then this look of awe or shock washes over his face. With out making eye contact he said, "When I was a kid, I use to have this fantasy about a plant, it was like a Venus fly trap, and it would come into my room at night and suck on me."
Yes! Exactly! See it isn't that unusual. Isn't that wonderful.
Awesome. I love those conversations. What a treat to be a trigger.
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