Margaret Atwood To Celebrate Publication Of The Testaments With A Live Global Cinema Event And UK Tour

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. The momentous literary event begins Monday, September 9th with a midnight opening at Waterstones Piccadilly with Margaret Atwood. A six date in-person tour across the UK and Ireland will follow in October and November.

Margaret Atwood: Live in Cinemas will be broadcast to over 1,000 cinemas across the globe, including cinemas throughout the UK, US and Canada, with delayed screenings planned in Australia and New Zealand. Filmed live from the Lyttelton stage of the National Theatre in London, broadcaster and 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. Special guests will be announced later. Cinema tickets go on sale on Friday 8th March from 10am and can be found at www.margaretatwoodlive.com. Additional venues and international countries to be confirmed.

Following the book release week events, Fane will present Atwood in a limited, six-date tour across the UK and Ireland in October and November. Tickets for these events are on general sale from 10am today via www.faneproductions.com/atwood

Margaret Atwood says 'I am delighted that the launch of The Testaments will take place not only in London on 10th September, 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 against 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 Testaments picks 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 Chatto & Windus, an imprint of VINTAGE, on 10 September.

Fane Productions' live cinema broadcast is Executive Produced by David Sabel, the creator of National 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 of National 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.

'When The Handmaid's Tale came out, we in the women's rights movement recognized that it was based on awful violations that women face around the world, but we thought the trend for women's rights was upwards . . . towards greater equality. Events of the past few years have shown us how we can never take progress for granted. The Testaments could not be more timely for us working on gender equality - we need to remain vigilant, persistent and make ourselves heard. Margaret Atwood's work has had a huge impact on bringing attention to our cause and we are delighted and privileged to be partnering with her on these events.' Yasmeen Hassan - Global Executive Director, Equality Now

Waterstones Piccadilly is honoured to be hosting Margaret Atwood for the midnight release of her new novel, The Testaments, as part of an expansive one-night celebration on 9th September.

Margaret Atwood will headline an evening of panel discussions, readings and immersive experiences. Our celebration of resistance, courage, social change and the power of language will build towards the chance to be the first to hear the novel's opening, read by Margaret Atwood herself.

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.

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