Margaret Atwood books livestream event for ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ sequel

Upon release of “The Testaments,” the long-anticipated sequel to the 1985 novel “The Handmaid’s Tale,” author Margaret Atwood will take part in a theatrical livestream event promoting the book on Sept. 10.

Atwood will be interviewed by broadcaster and author Samira Ahmed live onstage at the National Theatre in London the same day the sequel novel will be published. Their conversation will be livestreamed in select theaters in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, with delayed screenings in Australia and New Zealand.

“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,” Atwood said in an announcement on Thursday, which is presented by Fane Productions in partnership with the human-rights group Equality Now.

“Margaret Atwood Live in Cinemas” will include exclusive readings from the book by special guests, and the writer is expected to discuss her career, range of work and why she returned to the story so many years later.

“The Testaments,” Atwood has said, is inspired by everything readers have asked her about the novel’s dystopian Gilead and its inner workings, as well as the world we live in.

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The scarlet-clad handmaids whom Atwood created in her prescient novel have become a symbol of female empowerment and women’s rights as further popularized by their harrowing portrayal in Hulu’s smash TV series. Strident protesters have donned the women’s unmistakable robes to protest misogyny and oppression, particularly in legislation, over the past few years.

Atwood serves as a consulting producer on Bruce Miller’s Hulu adaptation, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which stars Elisabeth Moss as the book’s protagonist, Offred. The series debuted on Hulu in 2017, and its timeline has already surpassed Atwood’s original work.

Meanwhile, “The Testaments” is set 15 years after Offred’s final scene in the original book, which closed Season 1 of the TV series. The sequel will be narrated by three female characters, perhaps providing future plot spoilers for the Emmy-winning drama.

“The Handmaid’s Tale’s” 13-episode third season debuts on Hulu on June 5. “The Testaments” will be published by Penguin Random House on Sept. 10.

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