BEN AND BEATRIZ

It's the last spring break for the Harvard Class of 2017, and sworn enemies Ben Montgomery and Beatriz Herrera are spending their vacation at Ben's family’s mansion on Cape Cod.

Accompanied by Ben's roommate, Claudio, and Beatriz's cousin, Hero, who've just started dating, the two try to put aside their dislike of each other on behalf of their friends. Appalled by Ben's family's ostentatious wealth and his obvious White privilege, Beatriz, a queer Latinx woman distraught over the 2016 election, grapples with her mysterious attraction to this person who symbolizes everything she despises. Ben, at odds with his brusque older brother, John, and increasingly worried about his hometown friend Meg, who works at McDonald's, also questions his place with Beatriz, a woman he's always found intriguing. Their mutual nerdiness—this spring break involves studying on the beach and playing Magic: The Gathering—as well as their physical longing turn the enemies to secret lovers quite quickly and intensely, leading both Ben and Beatriz to question their identities, their values, and their places in society. Told through Ben’s and Beatriz's alternating first-person narratives, with plenty of text messages interwoven through the scenes, this creative retelling of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing explores contemporary issues like drug addiction, suicide, mental health, class divides, racism, and more, all while the love story progresses quickly.

An opposites-attract romance grappling head-on with real-world issues while still offering indulgent escapism.