COMEDY
(Metromaniacs, Shakespeare Theatre, 20 March 2015)
Act
One: we’re who
we
dream to be. New guises
multiply
like light
beneath
a dappled tree,
a hall
of mirrors as the plot
unwinds. Is seeming real?
I
can’t make up
my
mind.
Act
Two: complexities
abound
as mis-reads cue
the
story line. A valet passes
for
a lord, while true hearts
stumble
down blind alleyways.
But
which is which? It’s hard
to
tell. I can’t make up
my
mind.
Finale: all’s made
amply
clear. Pretense reversed,
each
hero gets his girl.
The
mask of laughter trumps
the
mask of pain. Yet which
is
which? – they’re intertwined.
Identity’s
a slippery web,
a
glimmer hanging by a hair;
who
knows what weaver
tied
what knot?
We can’t make up
our mind.
From Poets Are Present: An Anthology (Shakespeare Theatre Company, May 2015)