Atwood/Felix as teacher does a thorough job in exploring all the various themes (revenge, love, prison, etc.) and character development even to what might happen to the major characters after the play ends. We get to study the plot, characters, and themes of the play on several levels: through Felix’s eyes, with the inmates, and in Atwood’s overall creation. Hag Seed is a master class in “The Tempest” and I enjoyed every lesson. A flesh and blood former gymnast/dancer/actress and current barista takes on the role for the prison play while Felix’s fantasy (ghost?) daughter (named Miranda), who formerly only hung out at the cave, comes along for the play and shadows the prisoner playing the role of the sprite Ariel. The whimsy comes with how Atwood handles the role of Miranda.

Felix even lives in an underground house/cave for the twelve years of his disappearance/exile and teaches at a prison/island. All the major characters are there in their dual roles in Felix’s life/play. She employs the “play within a play” trope where the main character Felix/Prospero is teaching and directing “The Tempest” in a prison literacy program, while simultaneously living out the plot of the play.Īnd that plot is revenge! Specifically on Tony/Antonio, who turfed him out of his job as director of a major festival twelve years before. Atwood drew “The Tempest” and gave us a workman-like effort with touches of whimsy. I’ve read two others in the series and this one is my favorite-so far. The publisher, Hogarth Books, is putting out a series of novels by famous authors retelling Shakespeare’s plays. Hag Seed (a reference to the “monster” Caliban) did not disappoint.

She’s experiencing a renaissance now because of the Hulu award-winning TV series based on her 1986 dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale.If you’ve wondered way some women have been showing up in full-length red gowns and white bonnets to protest legislation limiting a women’s right choose or other restrictive laws-this book/show is why.

I love Margaret Atwood and have read nearly everything she’s written. It’s magic! Margaret Atwood’s novel take on Shakespeare’s play of enchantment, retribution, and second chances leads us on an interactive, illusion-ridden journey filled with new surprises and wonders of its own. Here, Felix and his inmate actors will put on his Tempest and snare the traitors who destroyed him. After twelve years, revenge finally arrives in the shape of a theatre course at a nearby prison. Instead, after an act of unforeseen treachery, Felix is living in exile in a backwoods hovel, haunted by memories of his beloved lost daughter, Miranda. Now he’s staging a Tempest like no other: not only will it boost his reputation, it will heal emotional wounds. His productions have amazed and confounded. Felix is at the top of his game as Artistic Director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival.

Hag seed by margaret atwood