Student Question
How does Margaret Atwood adapt the theme of illusion/magic from The Tempest to Hag-Seed?
Quick answer:
Margaret Atwood both preserves and adapts the theme of illusion/magic from The Tempest to Hag-Seed by emphasizing the enchantment of theater. In putting on his elaborate production of The Tempest, Felix uses elaborate costumes and staging techniques to transform his troupe of inmate actors into thespians.
Felix is not a magician; he cannot do magic tricks, and he lacks the kind of knowledge that allows Prospero to conjure up a massive sea-storm that brings a ship-load of his enemies to his remote island. But he is a talented theater producer, and he's not about to pass up the opportunity that he's been waiting for for so many years to cast a spell upon his audience with his dazzling, if somewhat-unconventional take on Shakespeare's final play.
As Felix will be working with prison inmates rather than professional actors, he's going to need to draw on all his creative resources to impress the audience. And he doesn't disappoint, going to often absurd lengths to make his production something that will be talked about for years to come.
This mainly involves decking out his players in outrageous costumes and using radical staging techniques. For instance, Ariel is played by...
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a transvestite on stilts who transforms into a giant firefly at significant moments during the play. Then we have Caliban as a paraplegic, pushing himself around stage on an oversized skateboard.
Of course there's Felix himself. He is effectively the Prospero of the story, except that what magical powers he does possess are purely theatrical. Like Shakespeare himself, albeit on a much more modest scale, he possesses the remarkable talent to conjure up a dazzling world of the imagination.
How does Atwood maintain the theme of illusion in Hag-Seed without emphasizing magic?
The flamboyant artistic director Felix is very much the Prospero of Hag-Seed, Margaret Atwood's take on The Tempest. Unlike Shakespeare's protagonist, however, he is incapable of working magic. Nevertheless, he's something of a whizz at using dramatic artifice as a way of constructing his own unique version of reality.
Emerging from an extensive period of hibernation out in the wilderness, Felix is determined to make his comeback as an artistic director. In doing so, he also hopes to gain revenge on his bitter rival Tony, who years before was responsible for getting him fired from a Canadian theater festival just before he was about to stage his own production of The Tempest. Deprived of an opportunity to unleash his masterwork upon an unsuspecting world, Felix has been itching for revenge ever since.
Now, at long last, he has his chance for some well-deserved payback. He's going to stage his production of The Tempest at a correctional facility, using inmates as actors. And his nemesis, Tony, now a government minister, will be in the audience. But Felix doesn't want his inmate actors to look like inmates; he wants them to inhabit the characters that they play.
In order to do this, Felix will have to generate a sense of illusion, and the way he does this is through elaborate costumes and bizarre stage effects. For instance, his Ariel will be played by a transvestite on stilts, who will transform into a giant firefly at significant moments. As for Caliban, he'll be a "scabby" street person—a paraplegic, no less—who'll push himself around the stage on an oversized skateboard.