It’s amazing what you can find in your own backyard. Pitt Street Uniting Church is one of Sydney’s most unusual performance spaces – an active place of worship and a playhouse. A progressive Christian community of justice-seeking friends in the heart of the city, it’s a fitting home for Scene Theatre Sydney, a company driven by curiosity, conscience, and conversation. 

Beneath the sweeping pulpit , Seed Hunters unfolds amid the scent of old timber and the echo of hymns. It’s the perfect home for the company’s ethos: bold, idea-rich theatre that invites reflection as much as entertainment. It challenges the idea that humanity can ever truly engineer a “better kind of man,” but the questions it ultimately poses are far more personal.

Written by playwright and Artistic Director Carol Dance, this new One Act play moves between two intergenerational families spanning 50 years and multiple countries. Half a century apart, the same issues persist – about gender, power and social politics. For all our supposed progress, history repeats itself. The radical idealism of the 1970s has resurfaced in today’s digital age as rigid beliefs, tribal loyalties, and a new kind of moral absolutism.

The story begins in 1970’s Peking with students Rosa (Fabiola Pellegrino) and Ragnar Stern, the self-righteous Icelander (Bryson Grenfell), quietly rebelling against censorship through music, theatre, and secret gatherings. Also among them is young Bob (Micah Doughty), a little uncertain and undercooked, yet to find his voice. Pellegrino gives Rosa (a founding “seed hunter”) a quiet, fierce resolve, which contrasts sharply with Grenfell’s portrayal of Ragnar, who captures the anger and arrogance of a youthful revolutionary. Doughty is sensitive and thoughtful.

In present-day Sydney, student engineer Bridget (Julia Grace) drives the Seed Hunter movement with a kinetic conviction that borders on hubris, viewing men like Larry (Oliver Harcourt) as targets for her genetic mission. The movement itself—a group of women determined to conceive children with mixed-ancestry men to genetically create a less aggressive, more intelligent individual, one baby at a time—is a compelling piece of contemporary mythology.

This audacious concept was immediately intriguing, prompting me to Google on whether it was merely fiction or an actual fringe philosophy; it possesses a perverse logic and is a compelling piece of contemporary mythology. Grace captures Bridget’s naive and energetic ambition behind this plan. Her sister Sarah (Madison Chippendale) lives more in the moment, bringing a grounded, modern appeal and charm to the story.

Brothers, Larry and Jack (Theo Rule), effectively mirror the contrasting personalities of Bridget and her sister Sarah. While Larry remains open-minded and reflective despite his long-term grief, his brother Jack provides a cautious, distinctly male knock-about perspective. 

Dorothy (Joan Rodd), sisters family matriarch, is plated with majesty and quietly exasperated wisdom while Gregor (Ben Cremen) has a small but vital role, his lovely baritone voice bridging and healing the generations. Don Ferguson, as the older Grigor Rose, delivers a performance marked by a thoughtful distance, lending an elegiac quality as he re-traces the paths of his past. His journey is beautifully supported by Tiang Lim, who delivers a small but authentic depiction as a Beijing tour guide. 

The vast and lexically dense themes, along with a large array of characters, take a while to fully take hold, however the cast vividly brings these dynamics to life, balancing drama with insight. A flipboard displaying the places and dates for each scene is a clever touch, helping to orient the audience through the winding journey. Director Melissa Paris’s effective use of space helps create a cohesive and immersive atmosphere, beautifully enhanced by the natural light filtering through the church windows.

While advertised as a satirical comedy – and it is certainly topical, clever, and controversial – Seed Hunters proves to be something much more tonally earnest: a textured exploration of legacy and the profound human desire to make an impact upon the world.

The play’s broad themes require careful reflection (and perhaps an interval to fully absorb its scope) and some character arcs felt a little underdeveloped. Seed Hunters is ultimately a timeless narrative about the search for meaning within family. It suggests that peace is found not in engineered DNA, but in the continuous act of seeking truth and connection within the halls of our inheritance.

Seed Hunters plays until Sunday Oct 26 at Pitt Street Uniting Church.

For details see :https://www.scenetheatresydney.net.au/seed-hunters

Follow Faith in Theatres on Instagram and Facebook to join the journey through epic, human narratives. Because theatre needs Faith