How often do we get the opportunity to wrap our heads around the big questions of our time and really flex that muscle between our ears? Seeds is that opportunity. It is a stunning and vastly important piece of documentary theatre by the much-admired Montreal playwright Annabel Soutar, and it is only onstage until March 10 at the intimate Young Centre for the Performing Arts in the Distillery District.
As the artistic director of the Porte Parole theatre company, this gifted young writer has written, rewritten and rewritten again this intriguing work since 2005 — yes, more than seven long years. It tells the story of an established Saskatchewan farmer named Percy Schmeiser and his four-year court battle with ginormous biotech corporation Monsanto.
Now in its umpteenth reincarnation, this production includes the benefit of the writing and directing assistance of Chris Abraham, the artistic director of the phenomenal Crow’s Theatre company. His deeply moving and beautiful production of John Mighton’s The Little Years, at the Stratford Festival last summer, was the most satisfying show in that stellar company’s season.
Seeds is fun to watch, as the seven-member cast (every one of them superlative performers, including Eric Peterson, arguably the greatest male actor in Canada today) plays nearly three dozen different characters — from the Bruno, Sask., farmer with the almost-comical name of Schmeiser to scientists from Canadian universities to a Johannesburg radio interviewer. Even the playwright herself, Ms. Soutar, is included, along with her husband, struggling to raise their two daughters while his wife hops across Canada and across the globe interviewing dozens of people to put together this documentary play we’re witnessing.
The Big Question behind Seeds is truly one of the biggest of our time: what are we doing to our food? Should scientists be deciding what and how to “improve” the food that you and I put into our mouths and stomachs — and those of our children? Are giant companies like Monsanto “playing God” with their products for mere profit, or are such firms truly making the world safer for its billions of inhabitants?
Seeds is frequently a highly praiseworthy work of art. It is not always easy to follow the scientific arguments and the legal disputes, but the writing is scrupulously fair to both sides as well as occasionally very funny: Did farmer Schmeiser really steal the patented Monsanto seeds and plant them consciously across his hundreds of acres? Or were they innocently blown unto his land by God’s own breezes and storms?
Indeed, playwright Soutar opens this irresistible play with an actor walking into the audience, which is seated in front of the stage — where a giant screen shows us images of leaves, DNA, giant typed words such as “LIFE?” — and holding a microphone under the face of a sweet young schoolgirl. “What is life?” the performer asks the audience member, laying out the plot and theme of this vital play.
“Oh, animals … persons … God.…” replies the child.
Perfect.
For more information go to www.crowstheatre.com.
