SEEDS, a Play About GMOs and Canola

After much of his 1998 canola crop turned out to be resistant to the herbicide Roundup, Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser became the focus of a bellwether legal case that brought up questions about farmers' rights to save and reuse seed versus seed developers' rights to enforce patent protection of a specific gene within a seed.

Schmeiser, who has served as an elected official in his rural community at both the municipal and provincial level, claimed that seeds with a genetic modification engineered by the agricultural company Monsanto had strayed into his canola fields by various natural means. Monsanto claimed that he had knowingly sowed their genetically modified seeds without paying the requisite $15 per acre fee.

In the minds of many people who are interested in food safety, farmers' rights and related issues, the wrong question went to trial. Perhaps what should have been debated is whether a living organism (or one of its genes) should be patentable in the first place. It's a tough and extremely complicated subject, and playwright Annabel Soutar, author of SEEDS (which officially opens today at Toronto's Young Centre for the Performing Arts) has done a creditable job of explaining just how tricky it is.

Certainly Soutar's sympathies are with Schmeiser, and by casting Eric Peterson in the role, director Chris Abraham has made sure the audience's are too. Peterson (pictured above, in a photo by Guntar Kravis), is well known to Canadian television audiences for his appearances in such shows as Corner Gas, Republic of Doyle and – as crusading lawyer Leon Robinovitch – the 1980s series Street Legal. He does irascible like nobody else, managing always to express integrity and warmth through an apparently crusty surface.

I found that many members of last night's preview audience were not habitual theatregoers, and the general opinion seemed to be warm admiration not only for the discussion of these issues, but also for the fluid and creative staging, which occasionally has Peterson wandering into the audience to hand out flyers (or seeds).

The production uses an adaptable long and narrow video screen – to match the prairie landscape where much of the action is set? – sometimes for set changes and sometimes to replicate the effect of a film or TV news documentary, with captions and explanatory text segments. The subtle music and sound effects – from truck doors closing to gavels banging – are powerful aids to the many stage illusions; they're the work of Richard Feren, Toronto theatre's King of Soundscapes. Someone should give this man a medal, if they haven't already.

Some of the simplest effects are the most powerful, like a lab coat that becomes a newborn baby, or something involving a seed sack that I won't give away for fear of spoiling a good moment.

The acting style is extremely well suited to the subject matter. The dialogue is largely composed from material gathered in taped interviews, so the actors have been given lines full of repeated phrases, incomplete sentences, pauses and frequent interjections; occasionally they even talk at the same time. This highly artificial device actually gives a sense of extreme naturalness, and allows for the creation of some memorable characters: a pair of sympathetic beer-drinking botanists, a harassed PR flack for Monsanto, Schmeiser's wife Louise.

The Crow's Theatre production of SEEDS runs until March 10. Ticket prices ($25-$35 with various discounts in effect) rise as the run continues, so if you're interested in an intelligent and thoughtful look at GMO issues that's also a solid evening of theatre work by veteran professionals, book early.