If We Were Villains By M.L. Rio. Published by Flatiron Books, 2017.

In her debut novel, If We Were Villains, M.L. Rio writes, “Far too many times I had asked myself whether art was imitating life or if it was the other way around”(8-9). In a novel about a group of college students who perform Shakespeare at Dellecher Classical Conservatory, one can’t help but think about Rio’s words. Is her debut novel about art imitating life, or is it about life imitating art?

The novel follows Oliver Marks, who the reader learns at the very beginning of the novel is about to be released on parole after serving ten years for an unnamed crime. Before he’s about to be released, however, Detective Colborne (the lead investigator of the case) asks Oliver to tell him a story. Oliver agrees, but requests that it be after he is released, and that nobody else may be affected by the truth – “no double jeopardy” (5). Colborne agrees with Oliver’s request.

M.L. Rio doesn’t follow the writing style of a traditional novel; instead of separating the novel into chapters, she chooses to divide the book into five separate acts, with each act containing a prologue and a number of scenes. Act V is the only act that contains an epilogue (which is also the very end of the novel). In a story surrounding theater and Shakespeare, Rio’s choice to use acts and scenes instead of chapters adds to the atmosphere of the novel and how these characters are consumed by art.

If We Were Villains begins with Oliver and Detective Colborne in 2007, but Act I Scene I – the true beating heart of the novel and the truth of it all – begins ten years earlier, when Oliver was a senior at Dellecher. In a highly competitive and prestigious university, Oliver and six other students – James, Alexander, Richard, Meredith, Wren, and Filippa – are the only fourth-year acting students. After surviving and making it this far at Dellecher, the group becomes close and intimate with one another.

As they prepare to audition for Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Alexander claims that they do not need to audition, as he can foretell what role they will all earn. He predicts that Richard will play Caesar (the tyrant), James will play Brutus (“because he’s always the good guy”), he will play Cassius (“because I’m always the bad guy”), Wren will play Portia (the ingénue), and Meredith will play Calpurnia (the femme fatale), leaving Filippa and Oliver to be cast as whoever is leftover, i.e., the background characters (8).

Now, one may be worried that they will not understand the novel if they’ve not read Shakespeare, but this isn’t the case. A reader does not necessarily need to have read Shakespeare to understand the themes Rio presents. The play that the novel mostly surrounds is Julius Caesar, but one does not need to have read the play to understand the importance of it.

During Act III, Rio reflects on how the play influences the characters’ actions. As within Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, not one person stands up and saves Caesar; in If We Were Villains, each character lets their inaction drive them. M.L. Rio writes:

That loathsome opiate, relief, race through my veins again–sharp and lucid at the initial prick, before everything went numb. I heard one of the others, maybe Filippa, exhale and I knew I wasn’t the only one who felt it. The moral outrage we should have suffered was quietly put down, suppressed like an unpleasant rumor before it had a chance to be heard. Whatever we did–or, more crucially, did not do–it seemed that so long as we did it together, our individual sins might be abated. There is no comfort like complicity. (154)

Despite this being her debut novel, Rio is no stranger to the arts. She holds an MA in Shakespeare studies from King’s College London and Shakespeare’s Globe, and also has a PhD in English literature from the University of Maryland. Rio is familiar with the acting scene and Shakespeare in general, and it comes across in her writing, as her characters are constantly quoting Shakespeare, even out of costume. Detective Colborne and Oliver have an exchange about this after Oliver is released on parole:

Oliver confesses to committing a crime, as a way of breaking from the tragic cycle of life imitating art. He thought that by confessing, everybody would no longer be consumed by this madness that the art brings. However, the novel ends with Oliver receiving a letter from James, who hadn’t visited Oliver in the past four years. In this letter is a monologue from Pericles, and Oliver becomes consumed with finding out the truth about James. The novel ends, once again, with life imitating art. The cycle is not broken.

M.L. Rio is a talented writer whose novel surrounds the arts and the madness that can consume actors. While having read Shakespeare’s play might add to a reader’s comprehension of the novel, it is not necessary, as Rio’s prose informs the reader enough. If We Were Villains is a novel I would recommend to everybody (not just academics)! The reader can decide for themselves: does art imitate life, or does life imitate art? You know my answer; what’s yours?

“The readiness is all” (334).