R. Luce’s Once Upon A Waning Star is a powerful and illuminating play within a novel, showcasing the unsettling after-effects of the January 6 insurrection, and what remains after the commotion settles and the damage trickles into everyday life.
Dave Singh runs a warm, welcoming bar in Ohio, even as the world outside appears to be coming apart in mayhem. It’s the night after the insurrection, and a neatly dressed man wearing a mask enters Dave’s Place. The man is Jack, a writer who first appears cautious but, as Dave later learns, doesn’t shy away from the truth, preferring to say it as it is. The two men develop an instant bond.

Dave and Jack start off with light-hearted banter, but, one conversation to the next, they go deeper into politics, masculinity, grief, addiction, truth, all of it; no topic is off the table. Both men bring their opposing personalities and ideologies, with Dave leaning more towards measured care and restraint. On the other hand, Jack speaks from a less-than-ideal lived experience: growing up around addiction, denial, and recently, recognizing those same patterns playing out in the world around them.

The bar, however, is not sealed off from the cruelty outside its four walls. Hours pass, and the cold of the night makes its way into the warmth of the bar, forcing Dave to act in a moment when staying neutral is no longer an option.

Once Upon a Waning Star develops through two main perspectives: the self-aware author- narrator and the actors who play their roles in the stage play within the novel, backstage scenes included. The narrator remains present throughout the story, bringing to light the harsh truths of injustice, political disaster, and the emotional highs and lows that accompany them. The play evolves in near real time, making you feel like a spectator, watching, listening, and sometimes bordering on complicity.

R. Luce shows you the uncomfortable bits of life, highlighting the struggle for identity under pressure and justice, the cost of denial, and the defiant power of human connection even when all hell seems to be breaking loose. If you enjoyed Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, or love politically charged literary fiction that combines theatre, realism, and social critique, then Once Upon a Waning Star is not to be missed.