Saint Brigid’s Centre for the Arts and Humanities, a former Irish Catholic church dating back to 1890, was the perfect setting for a dramatic and musical presentation introducing this futuristic novel of a post-pandemic world. The audience sat in the pews and observed the show on a stage where the altar once resided.
The evening began with a dramatic flourish as Atwood led a procession to the stage including the choir and director Laurence Ewashko as well as actors Todd Duckworth (Adam One), Mary Ellis (Toby), and Kate Smith (Ren).
In her introduction for the North American premiere of the event, Atwood said she made her own dramatic entrance to the world in Ottawa’s Civic Hospital nearly 70 years ago. She described her hometown as a city that had learned to meld cultures, cross borders, and make more with less. The last comment was a reference to the colourful stage backdrop which was assembled with plastic bags, duct tape, and pieces of string.
After praising the venue and the choir, and thanking the organizers and the Ottawa International Writers Festival, Atwood encouraged the audience to make contributions to Nature Canada, the recipient of the proceeds from the event. Her lively narration showed that she was thoroughly enjoying herself throughout the evening.
The story could be followed even if one had not read the book. Like The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood’s latest novel occurs in a bleak future following a cataclysmic event. Some occurrences were also directly referred to in Atwood’s successful recent novel Oryx and Crake, which she describes as a work of speculative fiction.
In The Year of the Flood, the world has become increasingly unstable environmentally and socially. Genetic mutations are seen in animals, and a pandemic destroys most of the population. The desperate survivors are left to fend for themselves, at the mercy of thugs and a corrupt secret police. One of the survivors, Adam One, had predicted the catastrophe. He is the founder of a religion called God’s Gardeners that seeks to meld science and religion and preserve plant and animal life. The hymns sung in the presentation are from his eco-religion and appear in the book.
Other survivors include Ren, a trapeze artist who is locked in the high-end sex club where she worked, and Toby, a follower of God’s Gardeners who hides in a luxurious spa. The novel describes how these characters interact and cope in a world fraught with peril at every turn.
The presentation effectively introduced the audience to the novel. The actors breathed life into the characters and the choir animated the words on the page beautifully.
Following the show, Atwood was available for book signing and answering questions. She revealed that shortly after completing Oryx and Crake she had the idea for The Year of the Flood and wrote it because she was interested in God’s Gardeners and wanted to know what would happen to them. The presentation no doubt left many in the audience wondering as well. They will have to read the book to find out.
This event was a precursor to the Ottawa International Writer's Festival, October 21-27, at which Atwood will be speaking. For information about events in this fall’s Writers Festival, visit http://www.writersfestival.org.
Joyce MacPhee is a writer and editor in Ottawa.
