Hag-Seed
MARGARET ATWOOD

Shakespeare plays don’t tend to be in need of an update or contemporary twist; they’re good for all time. Hag-Seed is the latest in the Shakespeare Retold series, which has seen Jeanette Winterson take on The Winter’s Tale and Howard Jacobson The Merchant of Venice. Atwood’s version of The Tempest is particularly clever and witty, with layer upon layer of correspond­ences with the original text waiting to be teased out by readers.

At first, she could almost be said to be cheating as her protagonist, Felix Phillips, is merely putting on a performance of the play. Years before he was due to play Prospero in his own production, when he was artistic director of a prestigious Canadian Shakespeare festival. Ousted by a backstabbing rival and a cowed board, disgusted and dispirited, he takes the suggestive pseudonym Mr Duke and starts work in a men’s prison, teaching life skills via drama.