LIFE & COMMUNITY entertainment
Already binge-watched The Handmaid’s Tale? Thankfully, R̆HUV DQRWKHU 0DUJDUHW Atwood production to enjoy with the CBC adaptation of her classic Alias Grace. Here, executive producer and writer Sarah Polley and director Mary Harron speak about this peak Canadian TV. TEXT BRIONY SMITH
64 OCTOBER 2017 | CANADIAN LIVING
ALIAS GRACE opens on the face of its heroine, a convicted murderer. After 15 years of incarceration, Grace Marks is now frog-marched to the prison governor’s mansion every day, where she spends her afternoons cleaning. Grace pauses GXULQJ KHU ZRUN ZLGH H\HV ¿OOLQJ WKH VFUHHQ DV KHU YRLFH RYHU WLFNV R̆ WKH SHUVRQDV WKDW people impose on her: Is she a heartless killer? An innocent betrayed? Her face slips from sly to serene to stern. With this, the miniseries—adapted from Margaret $WZRRG¶V ZRUN RI KLVWRULFDO ¿FWLRQ set in Kingston, Ont., itself based on the true story of an immigrant maid convicted in 1843 of killing her employer and his
mistress—announces that it will crack open the complexity and cruelty of women’s lives just as skilfully as Atwood’s beloved novel. The seminal text is in very good hands. Accomplished director and actor Sarah Polley has been hustling to get this miniseries made for the past two decades—ever since her agent gave her the book when she was 17. Though Polley failed to secure the rights back then, she got them when she turned 30, and now, eight years later, Alias Grace LV ¿QDOO\ hitting the screen, airing on CBC Sept. 25 DQG KHDGLQJ WR 1HWÀL[ &DQDGD LQ Polley called on director Mary Harron (of American Psycho fame) to helm all six episodes. Harron, too, was inculcated with
PHOTOGRAPHY, CBC
Canadian Grace
