The Boston Globe du lieu suivant : Boston, Massachusetts • G1

TuesdayStories THE BOSTON GLOBE TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2015 BOSTONGLOBE.COMARTS I INSIDE" RTk flk ONCE A SELF-DESCRIBED MASSACHUSETTS BP TOWNIE; EILEEN MYLES RETURNS KgfW THIS FALL AS A R0CK STAR 0F P0ETRY CORRESPONDENT ike the characters in it, Eileen Myles's "Chelsea Girls" has a bit of a checkered past. Initially scheduled for publication in 1994, what has become the poet's best-known book was pushed back several months by the death of Charles Bu-kowski, the undisputed star of Black Sparrow Press. Later, when it was set to be published in France, that was delayed, too, when the translator died. More than 20 years after it first came out, the timing of "Chelsea Girls" is finally spot-on. The book a series of vivid snapshots of hard partying, sexual pursuits, and more coming-of-age misadventures, which the author situates "someplace between a novel, a film, and a long poem" is being rereleased Tuesday by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins.

It's a companion to "I Must Be Living Twice: New and Selected Poems," Myles's first collection with a major publisher. After decades building notoriety in the alternative world of small presses, Myles is returning to Massachusetts this fall as that rare creature, a rock star of poetry. Though the Chelsea girls of Myles's title refers not to the city across the Mystic Paver but to the Manhattan hotel, there's a lot of New England in her writing, ranging from tales of her upbringing as a self-described Arlington "townie" in this book to her declara- EILEEN MYLES, Page G7 Place) and left Massachusetts when she was 25. tier dook TuesdayArts Inside A stellar 'Othello' from Actors' Shakespeare Project By Jeffrey Gantz GLOBE CORRESPONDENT Shakespeare paid special attention to the psychology of his villains, and Iago is arguably the most villainous of all even though he's called "honest Iago" so THEATER we are thus or thus" and "Who steals my purse, steals trash," who's the play's wit and philosopher. He's not the source of all its evil, however.

There's amazement on all sides that the fair Desdemona would run to the Moor's "sooty bosom." That overt racism undermines Othello's confidence in himself, and in her. Shakespeare is telling us it can also be in others that we are thus or thus. And though his plays are seldom models of internal consistency, this one is riddled with contradictions. First Cassio's married, then he's not. Othello says his mother got the fateful handkerchief from an Egyptian, then decides she got it from his father.

There are so many puzzles, you don't know who, or what, to believe. Perhaps that's the point. Certainly Kuntz will have you believing that Iago is a regular guy. He has an imaginative scheme for avenging himself on Othello, and as the plot unfolds, it's hard not to admire his straightforward address to the audience, and his ingenuity. He's even tolerably nice to his wife, which is not the way in many productions.

Right from the start, when his eyebrows arch as "OTHELLO," Page G5 often, it sounds like his given name. Perhaps being true to your hideous self is a kind of honesty. In any event, "Othello" gets a thoroughly honest, and moving, production from Actors' Shakespeare Project at the Modern Theatre, with stellar performances from John Kuntz as Iago and Johnnie McQuarley as Othello. Like the Bard's Richard III, Iago is too clever for everyone around him. He starts by baiting one of Desdemo-na's unsuccessful suitors, Roderigo; he'll go on to hoodwink Cypriot governor Montano and soldier Cassio and lead Othello "by the nose." He's angry, he says, because he and not Cassio deserved to be made Othello's lieutenant.

He also imagines that his wife, Emilia, is having affairs with Othello and Cassio. Oh and he's a racist and a misogynist. Shakespeare could hardly have made him less likable, and yet it's Iago, with lines like 'Tis in ourselves that TELEVISION PRETTY BOYS AGE COMICALLY John Stamos and Rob Lowe bring charm and charisma to two new Fox series G7 MUSIC TRUE CALLING Recapping the shining stars and other highlights of Boston Calling festival G4 STRATTON MCCRADY PHOTOGRAPHY FOR ACTORS' SHAKESPEARE PROJECT Josephine Elwood and Johnnie McQuarley are Desdemona and Othello and John Kuntz (background) plays Iago in "Othello.".