GMO court case harvests organic drama
Farmer's fight against Monsanto yields a balanced crop of facts
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/02/2016 (2968 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Prairie Theatre Exchange’s thought-provoking latest production will likely have special resonance for Manitoba audiences.
Seeds follows the case of Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser, who took his battle with biotech firm Monsanto all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2004.
Monsanto’s Canadian headquarters are in Winnipeg: the company’s director of public and industry affairs, Trish Jordan, portrayed in the play, is a Winnipegger. Two University of Manitoba scientists are featured and Winnipeg Free Press publisher Bob Cox is mentioned (albeit in his previous role as national editor at the Globe and Mail).
Perhaps most significantly, the drama by Montreal’s Annabel Soutar revolves around genetically modified canola seeds. The research that created the first canola variety with oil suitable for human consumption was done at the U of M; today Manitoba produces 20 per cent of the country’s canola crop.
So many audience members may already have opinions on whether Schmeiser did indeed infringe on Monsanto’s patent when he was found to be growing Roundup-resistant canola on his Bruno, Sask., farm in 1997. They may also have opinions on whether GMO seeds should be used in the first place.
The cleverness of Soutar’s work (2 1/2 hours plus intermission) is the way it turns reality — including all those conflicting opinions — into art. She calls it documentary theatre, and Seeds is a verbatim play, meaning the dialogue is all taken from her interviews and conversations with the actual people involved, as well court transcripts, public speeches or broadcasts.
All too often “thought-provoking” is code for “well-meaning but dull,” but Seeds is gripping, combining courtroom suspense with human drama, as Schmeiser turns his legal battle into a crusade against GMO foods.
Crisply directed by Chris Abraham, the production by Montreal’s Porte Parole Theatre flips back and forth in time without losing the narrative thread and conveys an enormous amount of information — legal and scientific — in an engaging and entertaining way.
Eric Peterson plays Schmeiser, and the former Corner Gas star is note-perfect in the role. He’s a lovable old coot, a cantankerous lover of the land who’s going up against a multinational corporation to honour his principles. However, as he becomes a globe-trotting public speaker and seed-keeping activist, questions are raised about his motivations and whether his salt-of-the-earth demeanour hides a canny operator.
Soutar includes her own voice among the others (she’s played by Amelia Sargisson in an unshowy but vital role), which allows the playwright to link the case — which was, on its face, about patent infringement, nothing more — with larger ideas about food security, the safety of biotechnology and the question of whether life itself can be patented. (It also allows her to interject with corrections when her characters speak lines that contain inaccuracies or factual errors.)
Casting (everyone but Sargisson and Peterson takes on multiple roles) is refreshingly gender- and colour-blind and universally excellent. Mariah Inger portrays several hilariously gruff, taciturn men and wild-haired activist Nadège Adam. Bearded Bruce Dinsmore plays female environmental activist Vandana Shiva. Marion Adler is all lovely domestic warmth as Schmeiser’s wife, Louise, and then turns sharky as Monsanto’s patent lawyer.
Cary Lawrence takes the somewhat thankless role of Monsanto PR flack Jordan and finds humanity below the brittle professional exterior, and chameleonic Alex Ivanovici morphs into myriad people, from Schmeiser’s lawyer to a weaselly scientist.
Sharp staging and creative video projections keep the play’s many moving parts in focus (although some might find the lighting distracting, as it shifts dramatically and characters often step in and out of shadow).
Seeds presents a balanced view of a story that inspires knee-jerk reactions. Left-leaning viewers will no doubt side with Schmeiser against Monsanto — it’s tough to rehabilitate the image of the company that developed Agent Orange — but Soutar makes the case that though humankind may be bred to resistant alternate viewpoints, in this increasingly complicated world, it’s best to allow for further research.
See video: wfp.to/pteseeds
jill.wilson@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @dedaumier
Jill Wilson
Arts & Life editor
Jill Wilson started working at the Free Press in 2003 as a copy editor for the entertainment section.
History
Updated on Thursday, February 11, 2016 2:34 PM CST: Adds video.
Updated on Thursday, February 11, 2016 2:42 PM CST: Fixes formatting.