by AMY BARRATT

Annabel Soutar sure doesn’t make things easy for herself.

First of all, this co-founder of Projet porte parole chooses to work in a form called documentary theatre, meaning that every word of dialogue spoken in one of her plays was actually spoken (or, occasionally, written) by a real person.

Then, she chooses subject matter that is anything but sexy. Previous plays have focused on the political climate in Quebec (Novembre), and the healthcare crisis (Santé). The company’s current production, Seeds, is about Monsanto vs. Schmeiser, the case of a Saskatchewan farmer taken to court by a multinational corporation for patent infringement because some of their herbicide-resistant canola turned up in his fields.

It’s a very complicated story, with a lot of scientific and legal aspects that mostly flew right over the head of your humble critic. Your humble critic doesn’t feel so badly about that because even the very smart scientists and the very smart lawyers represented in the play can’t agree on who was right in the Schmeiser case. The case was heard three times, in federal court, appeals court and finally by the Supremes. Even these ultimate judges were split 5–4.

Soutar’s text is part courtroom drama, part portrait of a town: Bruno, Saskatchewan, at a particular moment in time. Soutar has grown quite adept at shaping playable theatre out of disjointed interviews. Throughout the text there’s an obvious tension between wanting to impart information and needing to keep the drama moving. Soutar knows she can’t be constantly stopping the action to explain things to us. The production attempts to solve this problem through a device called sonic footnotes. Periodically, a bell rings and a red light flashes. This indicates that something we have just heard mentioned on stage will be elaborated upon later—theatregoers can choose to listen to these “footnotes” during intermission and after the performance.

Director Greg Kramer and a cast of six (playing dozens of characters) have done a masterful job of bringing what could have been a dry debate to life. Chip Chuipka gives an understated performance as Percy Schmeiser, the farmer held up as a hero by some and dismissed as an attention-seeker by others.

It’s a stark production, the only set a raked wooden platform. Everyone other than Chuipka is dressed in black judge’s robes. This leaves the actors to differentiate various characters using only their voices and bodies. They do so, ably.

Even if you go in to Seeds knowing almost nothing of the case and caring little about issues of genetic modification, you find yourself getting caught up in the story, wanting to discover the truth.

Soutar must have wanted desperately to find the truth hidden among sheaves of notes and transcripts. It is to her immense credit that she resists taking sides or giving us a Hollywood ending.

Seeds leaves us with more questions than answers.

Seeds, to Dec. 3 at the Studio Theatre of the Monument National (1192 St-Laurent), 871-2224, $22.50–$25

>> Stage Listings