Hag-Seed: Chapter 16 Summary & Analysis

Felix begins his next class by dramatically announcing that he’s persuaded an “exceptional” actress to take on the role of Miranda. The players cheer and he loads a clip of Anne-Marie dancing onto the class computer. Everyone is impressed to see Anne Marie in a halter top and shorts, performing a difficult and combative routine with a male partner. Someone says admiringly that “she could tear a whoreson strip off you.” When the video stops, the men exhale in unison.

Trying to sound formal and distant, Felix says that Anne-Marie will come to the prison for a read-through next week. Still, he can’t keep the prisoners from launching into a lively discussion of her physical merits. He warns them not to “cross her,” as she’s certainly formidable enough to handle them.

Felix shifts the discussion to a more difficult topic: who will take on Ariel’s part. Several actors immediately say “no way” to the idea of playing a fairy, and someone suggests Felix bring in another actor. Felix understands that no one wants to play a character who seems so obviously gay, especially since Ariel has a song in which he says he “sucks” flowers “like a bee.” It’s pointless for him to explain the connotations of fairies or even the word “suck” in Shakespearean times.

Instead, Felix encourages the actors to think more “widely” about Ariel. He points out his many superpowers—the spirit can be invisible, can conjure up thunder and wind, and can fly. Most importantly, he’s not a human. If they hadn’t read the play, Felix asks, and he mentioned such a character, what would they think of? After some muttering, Leggs admits that Ariel sounds somewhat like a superhero. Someone compares him to an alien from Star Trek, doing tasks in order to be reunited with his people.

Felix encourages the actors to discuss possible costumes for Ariel, and PPod suggests green skin and bug eyes; Red Coyote says he’s probably a vegan, and would eschew human food. In this way, the actors are able to accept the “bee-sucking” part of the play.

Next Felix asks the class to think about what would happen without Ariel’s role in the play. In fact, by summoning Prospero’s tempest and creating illusions throughout the play, he emerges as the most important character. In the modern world, he’d be a “special-effects guy” or a “digital expert.” 8Handz says that this is “scurvy cool.” Felix promises that in this production, the actor who plays Ariel will also be in charge of lighting, sound, and special effects—this adds an additional incentive for someone to take on the job. When he asks who wants to be on Ariel’s team, everyone raises his hand.