Masters Are You Mad?
‘I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you!’ vowed Malvolio at the end of Twelfth Night, but twelve years have passed in Illyria and nothing has been heard of him. Illyria is a ghost town now: all its young people have left for ‘Upriver’, for the legendary land of Moai, a realm of love requited, fortunes made and dreams come true, presided over by a mysterious figure who may or may not be Malvolio. Whoever he is, the Duke Orsino wants him ‘terminated’ and sends a motley crew of fools and assassins upriver to get the job done. But, as the Ferryman warns them:
Nothing makes no sense where we’re going, no geography, no history, no language.
Minds, meanings, souls and sexes will be transformed in Moai before the lost are found, the evil foiled, and broken hearts made whole.
Glyn Maxwell is a prolific poet, playwright and dramatist. In 1994 he was named one of the New Generation poets and he received the E. M. Forster Award in 1997. His work is included in several anthologies of the best English poetry of the 20th century, as well as in the latest edition of the Norton Anthology of English Poetry. Glyn’s latest poetry collection Hide Now was shortlisted for both the T. S. Eliot and Forward Prizes.