This week saw the final evening of an extremely successful Boston Center for the Arts run of the multimedia event entitled 28 Seeds, and I was fortunate enough to experience it. The event takes the form of a musical play, and is presented by Liars and Believers Theater co in collaboration with Walter Sickert and The Army of Broken Toys, a group based here in Boston.

The storyline brings up many issues that have been debated on this website, including the dichotomy between the practice of science and uses made of the resulting discoveries, politics in the innovation process, communication in science, its control and manipulation and the responsibility and ethical dilemmas that scientists find themselves in.

Having said that the show is a musical, it proves to be far from your traditional expectations. The band move from light groove through to the wildly cacophonous, a sound that seems to mix the Doors and I am Kloot with early Les Negresses Vertes.

The story involves 2 groups of scientists, pioneers in their respective fields. One group discovers that an asteroid is heading towards Earth and develops a weapon to neutralize the threat, while the other (an individual scientist) has developed an artificial tree that purifies air and pumps out oxygen much more efficiently than a natural tree.

The problems begin when the military realize the potential of the weapon and discover that it can be used to vaporize anything (including trees), and the government realizes the potential of destroying forests to plant acres of the new artificial trees and improve air quality.

As the play develops we find the scientists in more and more difficulty, as they defend their work and the values and ethics that underlie it in the face of its promotion, exploitation and control by third parties. The asteroid destroying weapon is used in a war against Canada, a country accused of withholding air as they keep their highly inefficient forests instead of planting the new machines, while the unfolding events are commentated through the eyes of a ‘typical’ web based TV station presenter using a particularly youthful and colourful language and form of expression.

Many serious issues are raised, that although framed within a farcical situation, in many ways represent the standpoint and arguments of the Bassetti Foundation perfectly. It is an extremely thought provoking performance and I would recommend it to anyone (but the faint hearted).

Music from the performance, video and various sundries are available here.