Independent Shakespeare Co. Will Present Feature Length Film: LIVE AT THE PORPENTINE: A COMEDY OF ERRORS

Independent Shakespeare Co. (ISC) presents its first feature film, Live at the Porpentine - A Comedy of Errors. Adapted and directed by David Melville, this film has the distinction of being the only English language film adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors. The free livestreams are Fridays - Sundays, March 11 - 20.

Born out of the pandemic and the need for the artists of Independent Shakespeare Co. to keep creating, Live at the Porpentine - A Comedy of Errors is a love letter to Hollywood that will immerse you in a world that's part Fellini, part Chaplin, and 100% Independent Shakespeare Co.

Best known for the Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival, ISC makes theater accessible with an approach that has captivated the diverse community of Los Angeles for close to 20 years, and with a predominantly BIPOC company of artists. With the pandemic hitting arts organizations hard, ISC took its expertise in creating entertaining ways of bringing great classical works to a modern audience, and turned it towards producing an indie film.

SYNOPSIS

Separated by a shipwreck when they were babies, two sets of identical twins get mixed up in each other's lives over the course of a day. Live at the Porpentine - A Comedy of Errors is adapted from Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors and re-imagined as an early 1960's technicolor musical comedy.

Director and ISC managing director David Melville: "Although The Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare's most reliable stage comedies, it has never been adapted for the big screen in the English language. There is a famous Mexican version, Los Gemelos Alborotados, and several Bollywood productions including the celebrated Hindi comedy, Angoor. Live at the Porpentine - A Comedy of Errors draws a lot of influence from an earlier, broader style of film comedy. I was particularly interested in the work of Peter Sellers and I tried to imagine the production as if seen through the lens of Blake Edwards. Their collaboration itself being inspired by the silent greats: Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. By exploring silent comedy set pieces found I could explore characters and situations that are only reported by Shakespeare onstage. And so, I developed a formula for the production that mixed physical comedy, a pared down edit of Shakespeare's language and songs to move the plot along and replace the (sometimes voluminous) expositional speeches. I tried to capture that feeling of live theater in the form of a film by taking the freewheeling, irreverent, naughty, funny, surprising things that you get when you see our comedies at the Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival and putting that spirit into a movie. This is not a presentation of a play on film; rather, it was an opportunity to go beyond the play. It all adds up to a funny, irreverent, and sexy film."

ISC's artistic director Melissa Chalsma: "Despite the difficult circumstances of making art in a pandemic we are committed to our mission of making work that serves the diverse, vibrant community of Los Angeles, bringing people together through the joy of theater. Anchored by the terrific leading performances of four BIPOC artists, our ensemble in this film reflects our company and our community. And what the entire creative team shares is a deep love of our city and our audience. This love is evident in every frame of our new film!"

For free reservations, visit iscla.org

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