Winner of the 2015 Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Original Script

Inside the Seed is a contemporary version of Oedipus Rex reimagined as a darkly comic political thriller.

Mirroring controversial real-life scientific and corporate controversies, Inside the Seed concerns a once-brilliant scientist who made a startling discovery: a bio-engineered form of rice that could save an overpopulated world on the brink of catastrophic famine. The play examines how good, smart, well-intentioned individuals are drawn into, and corrupted by, complex institutional systems, be they corporate, military, or governmental.

Cast of 5 men and 4 women.

Jason Patrick Rothery is Calgary-based writer and with nearly twenty years of experience as a professional theatre artist.A graduate of UBC’s Creative Writing program, and holding an MA in Humanities from York, Jason was a resident dramaturge at Playwrights Theatre Centre (Vancouver), resident playwright of the Soulpepper Academy (Toronto), the co-founder and Festival Director of the Calgary International Fringe Festival, and the Artistic Director of Ghost River Theatre (Calgary). He has enjoyed dozens of professional productions of his work and collaborative creations. His adaptation of China Miéville’s The City & the City enjoyed a sold-out premiere run at the 2017 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. Inside the Seed won several Jessie Richardson Awards, including Outstanding Original Script, and was published by Talonbooks in April 2016. After multiple mainstage mountings, Birth: EE Cummings in Song toured to New York City’s 42nd Street Theatre in July 2017. Rothery’s first novel, Privilege, was published by Enfield & Wizenty in 2019.

Jason Patrick Rothery's profile page

“A scathing look at a fictitious corporation so large it has lost track of its subsidiaries: while one part of the company is growing genetically modified rice, another is manufacturing defoliants. It’s about a corporation eager to ship 100,000 tons of its ‘Golden Rice’ to Africa without knowing – or caring – about the “statistically insignificant” incidents of birth defects the product causes ... Although it’s clear the playwright condemns corporations such as this, he sets up the debate fairly: millions of starving Africans will benefit from the shipment of the rice and [the main character] really does not know about the birth defects. But there are others who do know and don’t care; or who know but are prepared to make a deal.”
– Vancouver Courier

“Inside the Seed has important subject matter wrapped up in a sexy stylish production. Its corporate machinations are compelling and a little frightening when you realize most of the plot points are based on
real-life examples.”
– Charlebois Post