Blessed Be The Fruit

Margaret Atwood's unsettling cultural phenomenon The Handmaids Tale is lifted from the page to the stage in this haunting adaptation by Poul Ruders and Paul Bentley. First seen in Copenhagen in 2000, this critically acclaimed opera makes its way to Detroit in this production directed by Brenna Corner and conducted by Marit Strindlund. An unforgettable story of rebellion, loss and the remarkable power of hope in extraordinarily bleak circumstances, the cautionary tale continues to be increasingly present in contemporary conversations and debates on society, in a climate some see as eerily possible in a not-too-distant dystopian future.

What Is The Story?

Following the downfall of the United States of America to a militant theocratic group sometime in the not too distant future, a generation becomes indoctrinated into the Republic of Gilead. A fascistic religious society, all women are now without suffrage or rights, but those deemed 'sinners' suffer an even more twisted fate - to become 'Handmaids' - the fertile slaves to childless couples. Bound to keep reproducing or face exile or even death. But one Handmaid, Offred, has had enough of this frightening reality and vows to stop at nothing to tear Gilead down. Recognizable from both Atwood's books and the TV series starring Elizabeth Moss, The Handmaid's Tale is a landmark of speculative fiction that grows evermore prescient by the day.