Seeds: true drama about farmer vs. Monsanto onstage at Neptune
Eric Peterson is revisiting Saskatchewan, but this time it’s not for laughs.
The actor, known for playing curmudgeonly Oscar Leroy on the Prairie-set sitcom “Corner Gas” for six seasons, is starring in the play “Seeds,” running at Neptune Theatre in Halifax through Oct. 1. The topical drama tells a true story about Percy Schmeiser, a Saskatchewan canola farmer who got tangled in a lengthy legal battle with the Monsanto corporation over genetically engineered seeds.
“I’m somewhat of a political person, and I was interested in the aspect of bringing this to a stage,” said Peterson, 70, during an interview at the theatre.
“Seeds,” written by Quebec playwright Annabel Soutar, is an example of documentary theatre, a genre that uses the words spoken by real people as the source material.
“Most documentaries we see, of course, are films,” said Peterson.
“When you put it on the stage, you’re into the power of theatre, which has to do with live people watching other live people do something.”
Peterson was initially approached by the director, Chris Abraham, who sent him the script. The play has been performed periodically across the country since 2012.
“I was interested in this aspect of documentary theatre, where this play had been made up by Annabelle. It’s a discipline in itself where you interview people and, from a fairly neutral point of view,
try to unearth all the aspects of an issue.”
Soutar established Porte Parole, a Montreal theatre company set up to examine civic issues like the one in “Seeds,” which is basically about the copyrighting of organic material.
“They don’t shy away from complexity, and they grant the audience the intelligence, the tolerance and the interest to look at these things,” said Peterson.
“It’s richly paid off, in my experience. I’ve seen audiences’ incredible enjoyment of this.
“And in theatre terms, it’s also about us. This play talks about us exactly; it takes place in Saskatchewan and it’s not just about locale but it’s about the world we encounter in our newspapers, about the world we encounter when we go to vote, about our neighbourhoods — that part of our life we live as citizens, in a sense.”
He said the reaction to “Seeds” is generally positive, often sparking audience discussions even when there isn’t a formal audience
talk-back event with the cast or creative team.
“Often they want to know about the process, but a lot of times it’s about the content. We live in a culture now, it seems to me, where we’re told to shut up and listen to the experts or shut up and listen to the politicians, and we forget we’re all thinking, educated people in this country and we can find out things and make our own minds up about things, and this play reminds you of that.”
The Toronto-based Peterson also was welcomed into Canadians’ living rooms over the years in the TV series “Street Legal” and “This is Wonderland” but it’s “Corner Gas,” which signed off in 2009, that appears to linger in people’s memories. Peterson said he still gets requests from fans on the street to deliver Oscar’s catchphrase.
“I do; I love it. I get a lot of, ‘Aren’t you the jackass guy?’ Or they come up to me and go, ‘Call me a jackass.’”