No Stone Theatre (Nick Pitt and Johanna Taylor) have been developing the Seeds project since the company’s formation in 2018. Following R&D residencies at Pleasance London, Birmingham REP and Clapham Omnibus, lockdown conditions forced a rethinking of the project’s outcomes. The response is the creation of a wonderfully-produced Podcast, in eight episodes, which is being hosted weekly with partner venues and organisations.

Seeds is inspired by the extraordinary story of Nicolai Vavilov, who pioneered the world’s first seed bank at the Institute for Plant Industry in St.Petersburg (later Leningrad), but who fell foul of the Stalinist regime in the USSR and perished in confinement, after science conflicted with the political interests of the commissariat. The themes thrown up by the story have huge resonances with the perilous nature of our food security systems, and writer Nick Walker has juxtaposed a contemporary voice against a dramatic rendering of Institute employees in their attempts to protect the seed bank from destruction by warfare and the starving population outside.

Director – Nicholas Pitt. Producer – Johanna Taylor

Writer – Nick Walker. Music / Sound design – Jon Ouin

Performers – Jordan Kemp, Kirsty Rider, Graeme Rose, Katy Stephens, Nina Sosanya