Felix’s dissection of the play for his students, and Atwood’s readers, leaves little to uncover in the reading of the story, ultimately letting the air out of the more climactic moments. Even for those of us who haven’t touched Shakespeare since high school, Hag-Seed is almost painfully predictable. The novelization is as much a lesson in English literature as it is a literary adaptation. Within Hag-seed, The Tempest is entirely recognizable. Where The Tempest presents its play-within-a-play, Hag-Seed presents The Tempest put on by the Fletcher Correctional Players. Felix Phillips is Prospero, and facsimiles for The Tempest’s cast are everywhere. Duke and begins to teach Literacy Through Literature at Fletcher County Correctional Institute where he teaches Shakespeare to prisoners until the year he’s given the opportunity to enact his revenge.Īs an adaptation, Hag-Seed sticks close to the source material. Exiling himself, Felix adopts the guise of Mr. Felix is on the verge of putting on his wildest Shakespearean vision in his production of The Tempest, when he is suddenly and unceremoniously ousted by his treacherous second-in-command. The magic Felix Phillips controls is the magic of the theatre, and it has brought him critical acclaim as the artistic director of the Makeshewig Theatre Festival. Her Prospero is not a sorcerer, but a man. Unfortunately, Margaret Atwood plays it incredibly safe in Hag-Seed. It takes great talent to reimagine one of Shakespeare’s plays into something fresh, which is why the Hogarth Shakespeare project has asked such acclaimed novelists as Jeanette Winterson, Howard Jacobson, and Margaret Atwood to champion their retellings. They have been read in schools, performed on stages, and retold in every medium imaginable.

For over 400 years, Shakespeare’s works have been ingrained in our culture.

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