Fane Productions presents Margaret Atwood live on stage and in cinemas on Tuesday, September 10th in celebration of the global publication of The Testaments, Atwood’s highly anticipated sequel to her seminal work, The Handmaid’s Tale.
Margaret Atwood: Live in Cinemas will be broadcast to over 1,000 cinemas across the globe, including cinemas throughout the US, UK and Canada, with delayed screenings planned in Australia and New Zealand. Filmed live from the National Theatre in London, BBC journalist and New York Times best-selling author Samira Ahmed will interview Atwood about her remarkable career, her diverse range of works and why she has returned to her handmaid story, 34 years later. The event, presented in partnership with Equality Now, will include a number of special guests to be announced later this year.
Margaret Atwood: Live in Cinemas will be broadcast to hundreds of cinemas in cities across the US from New York (NY) to Los Angeles (CA); from King of Prussia (PA) to Colorado Springs (CO); and Baton Rouge (LA) to Portland (OR), through Fathom Event’s Digital Broadcast Network, with many more to be added soon.
Cinema tickets go on sale Friday, March 8 at 10AM ET at www.margaretatwoodlive.com.
Margaret Atwood says: “I am delighted that the launch of The Testaments will take place not only in London on September 10th, but also by live-streaming to over 1000 cinemas around the world. I can’t be in all the places at once in my analogue body, but I look forward to being with so many readers via the big screen.”
Alex Fane says: “We are thrilled to announce the continuation of our relationship with Margaret. To launch her new novel on an unprecedented global scale feels like a fitting gesture for such an innovative author whose work speaks to so many.”
The publication of Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale in 1985 and the current, Emmy Award-winning television series have created a cultural phenomenon, as handmaids have become a symbol of women’s rights and a protest of misogyny and oppression. In this brilliant sequel, acclaimed author Margaret Atwood answers the questions that have tantalized readers for decades. When the van door slammed on Offred’s future at the end of The Handmaid’s Tale, readers had no way of telling what lay ahead. Margaret Atwood’s sequel The Testamentspicks up the story fifteen years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead.
‘Dear Readers: Everything you’ve ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we’ve been living in.‘ – Margaret Atwood
The Testaments will be published by Penguin Random House and will be released on September 10, 2019.
Fane Productions’ live cinema broadcast is Executive Produced by David Sabel, the creator ofNational Theatre Live, with BY Experience, the New York based event cinema pioneer, global distribution representative of The Met: Live in HD and the global (ex-UK) distributor ofNational Theatre Live, distributing to cinemas, ex-UK. UK cinema distribution by National Theatre Live.
Women’s rights, female empowerment and resistance are at the core of Atwood’s story and in partnership with Equality Now these events will take on the issues faced by women in today’s world with vivid imagination and unflinching clarity.
“Equality Now uses a combination of national, regional and international human rights law to secure justice for survivors of discrimination and violence, to hold governments accountable for their promises, and to bring local issues to the attention of human rights bodies. Margaret Atwood’s work has had a huge impact on bringing attention to our cause and we are privileged to be partnering with her on these events.” – Yasmeen Hassan, Global Executive Director, Equality Now
Margaret Atwood is the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays. Her novels include Cat’s Eye, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin and the MaddAddam Trilogy. Her 1985 classic The Handmaid’s Tale went back into the bestseller charts with the election of Donald Trump, when the Handmaids became a symbol of resistance against him; and the 2017 release of the award-winning Channel 4 TV series. Sales of the English language edition have now topped 8 million copies worldwide. Atwood has won numerous awards including the Booker Prize, the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade and the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award. She has also worked as a cartoonist, illustrator, librettist, playwright and puppeteer. She lives in Toronto, Canada.
ABOUT FANE PRODUCTIONS
Fane Productions specialises in the production of bespoke live events for leading talent. We work with a diverse range of artists at the top of their respective professions, for whom live work adds an exciting dimension to their principal careers, whilst also acting as agents for other live work such as corporate bookings and keynotes. An innovative and collaborative company, Fane Productions work alongside agents, publishers and producers with a focus on creating dynamic live platforms to present and promote both the client and their work; be that a book, TV series, podcast or other venture. Over 350,000 tickets were sold in its first two years through events with the likes of John le Carré, Margaret Atwood, Nigella Lawson, Dolly Alderton, Stacey Dooley and Grayson Perry. Our programming team run the Sunday nights at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, as well as putting on over 800 shows per year at central London venue, Crazy Coqs, with a mix of music, theatre, cabaret, comedy and literary events in one extraordinary 80 seat venue. Words Weekend – our own take on a literary festival – was launched in November 2018 and the first three festivals will take place at Sage Gateshead, The Lowry in Salford and Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. In December 2018 Fane Productions acquired JHI Ltd, a creative marketing company who provide services for live theatre events, both nationally and on an international platform.
ABOUT BY EXPERIENCE
BY Experience, the “live cinema event powerhouse” (Variety) is “in the business of breaking through the barriers posed both by time limitations and space” (Fast Company”). BY Experience pioneered the digital revolution of live events to movie theaters and other locations globally with David Bowie’s 2003 Reality album launch and since then, millions of tickets have been sold worldwide for cinema events BY Experience has distributed globally. Current cinema series credits: Distribution Representative, The Met: Live in HD (Worldwide; since 2006), the UK’s National Theatre Live (ex-UK; since 2009), Bolshoi Ballet (North America; since 2014), Stratford Festival on Film (U.S. 2019) and Great Art on Screen (U.S. 2019). BY Experience has executive produced and/or distributed several diverse programs for cinema including numerous rock concerts, radio programs, fine art exhibits, major studio anniversary events, faith programs, spoken word, and other events. BY Experience distributes to over 75 countries, to over 3,000 movie screens.www.byexperience.net.
ABOUT EQUALITY NOW
Equality Now is an international human rights organization that works to protect and promote the rights of women and girls around the world by combining grassroots activism with international, regional and national legal advocacy. It’s international network of lawyers, activists, and supporters achieve legal and systemic change by holding governments responsible for enacting and enforcing laws and policies that end legal inequality, sex trafficking, sexual violence, and harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation. For more information go to www.equalitynow.org.
ABOUT FATHOM EVENTS
Fathom Events is the leading event cinema distributor with theater locations in all top 100 DMAs® (Designated Market Areas) and ranks as one of the largest overall theater content distributors. Owned by AMC Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: AMC); Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CNK); and Regal Cinemas, a subsidiary of the Cineworld Group (LSE: CINE.L), Fathom Events offers a variety of unique entertainment events in movie theaters such as live performances of the Metropolitan Opera, top Broadway stage productions, major sporting events, epic concerts, the yearlong TCM Big Screen Classics series, inspirational events and popular anime franchises. Fathom Events takes audiences behind the scenes for unique extras including audience Q&As, backstage footage and interviews with cast and crew, creating the ultimate VIP experience. Fathom Events’ live Digital Broadcast Network (“DBN”) is the largest cinema broadcast network in North America, bringing live and pre-recorded events to 975 locations and 1,578 screens in 181 DMAs. The company also provides corporations a compelling national footprint for hosting employee meetings, customer rewards events and new product launches. For more information, visit www.FathomEvents.com.
