Hag-Seed: the tempest retold

Product Information

Margaret Atwood’s modern retelling is an entertaining romp of revenge, redemption.” — Minneapolis Star-Tribune Felix asks his students to make a list of "curse words" used in The Tempest. On the list is "hag-seed." Felix bans all swearing from rehearsals save for the curse words from the list. [9] "Hag-seed" refers to Caliban, who is the son of a witch.

Groskop, Viv (2016-10-16). "Hag-Seed review – Margaret Atwood turns The Tempest into a perfect storm". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 2019-01-30. Felix is the Artistic Director at the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival and is planning to perform a version of Shakespeare's The Tempestthat is innovative, creative, and new to audiences everywhere. During rehearsal for the play, however, he is informed by Tony Price, the fundraising manager, that his contract has been terminated and Tony will be taking over as Artistic Director. Blindsided, Felix boils with anger and frustration but eventually agrees to leave.Felix has a plan for using the production to achieve his personal revenge against Tony and Sal, but he’s not sure if it can succeed, or if he has the courage to try it. Rehearsals go poorly at first, but with Felix’s determination—as well as Anne-Marie’s increasing involvement and help with choreography—they improve. The prisoners write innovative raps from the perspective of Caliban and Antonio. Meanwhile, the ghostly Miranda reads Felix’s copy of the script and becomes fascinated with the play; although she’s angry when Felix explains she can’t play the heroine, she eventually agrees to “understudy” Ariel’s part and accompanies Felix to rehearsal, saying the lines in his ear. The cast celebrate their success at saving the program and give their final reports about The Tempest. Epilogue Hag-Seed is a novel by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, published in October 2016. A modern retelling of William Shakespeare's The Tempest, the novel was commissioned by Random House as part of its Hogarth Shakespeare series. [1]

He would create a fit setting for this reborn Miranda he was willing into being. He would outdo himself as an actor-director. He would push every envelope, he would twist reality until it twangled. There was a feverish desperation in those long-ago efforts of his, but didn't the best art have desperation at its core? Wasn't it always a challenge to Death? A defiant middle finger on the edge of the abyss?" Narrator What makes the book thrilling, and hugely pleasurable, is how closely Atwood hews to Shakespeare even as she casts her own potent charms, rap-composition included… Part Shakespeare, part Atwood, “Hag-Seed” is a most delicate monster — and that’s “delicate” in the 17th-century sense. It’s delightful.”— The Boston Globe Readers looking for Atwood’s wit and mastery of language will find it at work here… Atwood more than does justice to the Bard.” -Chicago Review of Books Through Felix’s ghost daughter, Atwood makes the point that characters like Miranda – meek, obedient, virtuous and existing only in relation to the men around them – are not real, existing only as the products of patriarchal fantasyAtwood has designed an ingenious doubling of the plot of “The Tempest”: Felix, the usurped director, finds himself cast by circumstances as a real-life version of Prospero, the usurped Duke. If you know the play well, these echoes grow stronger when Felix decides to exact his revenge by conjuring up a new version of “The Tempest” designed to overwhelm his enemies.” —The Washington Post Felix’s desire for revenge has been spurred by Tony’s betrayal. Thus, the “sole drift of [Felix’s] purpose doth extend” is to make Tony and Sal (the Heritage Minister) atone for their wrongdoing. “Suddenly revenge is so close he can actually taste it. It tastes like steak, rare.” Felix torments his enemies in a drug-infused real-life production of The Tempest in a similar fashion to the banquet for Prospero’s enemies. Mandel, Emily St. John. “Margaret Atwood Meets Shakespeare in a Retelling of The Tempest.” Review of Hag-Seed, by Margaret Atwood. The New York Times, 28 Oct. 2016 www.nytimes.com/2016/10/30/books/review/hag-seed-tempest-retold-margaret-atwood.html. Accessed 28 Dec. 2016.

Groskop, Viv (2016-10-16). "Hag-Seed review – Margaret Atwood turns The Tempest into a perfect storm". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 2019-01-29.Felix states “Oh, the actors will relate to it, all right … It’s about prisons” and at the end of the play he says “… The Tempest is a play about a man producing a play – one that’s come out of his own head, his “fancies” – so maybe the fault for which he needs to be pardoned is the play itself … The last three words in the play are “set me free”’, says Felix. ‘You don’t say “set me free” unless you’re not free. Prospero is a prisoner inside the play he himself has composed. There you have it: the ninth prison is the play itself.” Atwood's] unique take on vengeance, enchantment and second chances is sure to delight old and new fans alike Image Magazine Atwood's superlative retelling of The Tempest owes as much to Machiavelli as to Shakespeare. It is another outstanding contribution to the Hogarth Shakespeare series ... With a motley crew of inmates, a creative lexicon of Shakespearean-style oaths and the mischievous antics of a modern-day Ariel, this reimagining of The Tempest imbues the spirit of the original with an energetic and poetic transformation. A thoroughly engrossing take on a timeless classic Martyn Colebrook, The Lady