Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Thursday 1 augusT 2019
Ace cast commands in tense family drama in 'Luce'

By LINDSEY BAHR left scattered all over the
Associated Press frame for the audience to
"Be yourself" is a loaded piece back together how-
idea for any 17-year-old, ever they see fit. It's a per-
but especially for one Luce fectly crafted cocktail of
(pronounced "loose") Ed- vision, talent and script that
gar, the title character of will leave your mind spin-
director Julius Onah's rivet- ning for days.
ing adaptation of JC Lee's Luce (Kelvin Harrison Jr.)
play "Luce ." is the adopted son of two
In this simmering drama, white parents, Peter Edgar
complex themes of race, (Tim Roth) and Amy Ed-
privilege, youth, family gar (Naomi Watts). He's a
and parenting are poked model student, charming
at, deconstructed and and polite to adults and

This image released by Neon shows, from left, Octavia Spencer, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Naomi
Watts in a scene from "Luce."
Associated Press

peers, a talented athlete plopped him down in the noyance and exhaustion
and has a bright future in tony suburbs of Arlington, of her students. And in a
front of him. Current ac- Virginia, to raise him start- class assignment where her
colades aside, his back- ing at age 7. students assume the voice
ground makes him even And everything seems to of a controversial world
more tantalizingly perfect be going great. leader, she believes she
as far as college admis- Everyone loves Luce, ex- sees something concerning
sions counselors are prob- cept for Harriet Wilson. about Luce. When she finds
ably concerned (because Played by Octavia Spen- illegal fireworks in his locker,
what else matters in upper cer, Harriet is a no-non- she becomes even more
middle-class suburbia?). sense history teacher who convinced that there might
You soon find out that Pe- infuses her own worldview be a sociopath beneath
ter and Amy plucked this into lessons — especially the smarts and charm and
former child soldier from his those about race and jus- decides to tell his parents
war-torn African home and tice — much to the an- about her suspicions.q

Red scare of '50s tests friends in

'Chelsea Girls'

Best friends Hazel and per West Side apartment
Maxine, stars of Fiona Da- in New York City that she
vis' new book, "The Chel- had grown up in — and the
sea Girls," never really got stifling family that she had
to be girls. Circumstances shared it with — she head-
forced them to grow up ed straight downtown to
quickly, so when they met the artist hangout Chelsea
during World War II as USO Hotel, a place she knew
actresses in Italy, they were from Maxine's colorful sto-
already brave women. Set ries. The two women seem-
up to be rivals, they de- ingly picked up where they
veloped an unbreakable had left off.
bond when they stood up Of course, as independent
to the atrocity of war. They thinkers in a time of change,
were stronger together, they had their ups and
This cover image released by and they'd always be that downs. Maxine achieved
Dutton shows "The Chelsea way. some fame in Hollywood,
Girls," a novel by Fiona Davis. When they returned state- but was basically a B-lister
Associated Press side, they went their sepa- with a decent paycheck
rate ways, but their relation- and a photogenic face.
By SAMANTHA CRITCHELL ship's foundation was solid Hazel carved out a career
Associated Press and they were destined to as a theatrical writer but
"The Chelsea Girls: a Novel" be reunited. When Hazel longed to write her own
(Dutton), by Fiona Davis left the comfortable Up- Broadway blockbuster.q