We walked to the Hummingbird Centre for the Performing Arts to see Paul Ruder’s powerful opera, “The Handmaid’s Tale” directed by Phyllidia Lloyd and performed by the Canadian Opera Company with Conductor Richard Bradshaw.
I thought that this production was very true to Margaret Atwood’s hauntingly prophetic novel written in 1985. Her prescient view of “what happens when you start doing things that are not out in the open such as the government having secret trials? You are in big, big trouble.”
The Prologue and Epilogue of the book were effectively presented on a lowered screen. Especially disturbing were photos of ecological disasters which rendered many women infertile; therefore, the role of Handmaid was to act as a surrogate mother. With the help of a revolving platform, the stage crew did an excellent job of changing the scenes.
