COMEDY OF ERRORS to be presented by Shakespeare in the Parking Lot in July

The Drilling Company will present a two-week run of "The Comedy of Errors," directed by Hamilton Clancy, for the 28th season of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot.

Performances will be July 20 to 29, Thursdays to Saturdays at 7:00 PM, in the Parking Lot of The Clemente, 114 Norfolk Street.

 

The Drilling Company's Shakespeare in the Parking Lot has been a Lower East Side neighborhood institution for almost three decades. Its concept--presenting Shakespeare plays with a "poor theater" aesthetic in a working parking lot--is now widely imitated around the US and around the world, with productions as far away as New Zealand. This summer, a new Shakespeare in the Parking Lot will emerge in Santa Rosa, CA.

 

The Drilling Company, founded by Hamilton Clancy, is comprised of an ensemble/rep company not unlike Shakespeare's company. Its members are veterans of the Off and Off-Off Broadway scene whose on-camera appearances commonly populate everything from streaming series to summer blockbusters. The cast of this production includes SITPL regulars Drew Valins (TV series "Bull"), Jack Sochet (horror film "Smile"), Meg Hennessy (TV series "Archive 81"), Bob Arcaro (former Artistic Director of Working Theatre) and Karla Hendrick (Off-Broadway: "The Norwegians"). Director Hamilton Clancy ("Burn After Reading," "Orange is the New Black") will appear as Egeon, the merchant from Syracuse who is father of the Antipholus twins. Rounding out the cast are SITPL  stalwarts Remy Souchon (playing Dr. Pinch as a New Age Transformational guru), Lizabeth Allen (as Dromio), Patrick Hart (as a local merchant) and Pëtra Denison (as Adriana).

 

The production relocates Shakespeare's slapstick comedy of mistaken identity from Ephesus, a crossroads of the ancient world, to the Lower East Side of the 1990's, a diverse and polyglot community filled with larger-than-life comic characters. The Antipholus twins are re-imagined as attitude-infused, mood-altered slackers. Clancy said, "We did this play 12 years ago on in a parking lot between Ludlow and Broome Streets. Among other things, there is a bowling alley there now. Bowling made us think of the Coen Brothers' film 'The Big Lebowski' and some fun ideas emerged from there."

 

This production is presented by The Drilling Company and co-presented by The Clemente.

 

Admission is free. Chairs are provided on a first come, first served basis and audience members are welcome to bring their own. Since the performance is outdoors, masks are not required but audience members may use their own discretion.

 

SYNOPSIS OF "THE COMEDY OF ERRORS"

Shakespeare based "The Comedy of Errors" (ca.1591) on "The Menæchmuses," an uproarious farce by Roman playwright Plautus, extracting fun from the misadventures of caused by the presence in one city of long-separated twins. Emelia, wife of Egeon, has twin sons, both named Antipholus, who are shipwrecked in infancy and carried away, one to Syracuse, the other to Ephesus. Antipholus of Syracuse goes to Ephesus in search of his brother. To make the confusion of identities more absurd, each brother has a slave named Dromio and both Dromios are indistinguishable twins. Adriana, the wife of the Ephesian Antipholus, mistakes the Syracusan for her husband and later has her real mate arrested as a madman. When the matter is ultimately brought into court, not only do the brothers recognize each other at last, but their mother Emelia, an abbess in whose priory the Syracusan had taken refuge during the excitement, and their father Egeon, who had come to Ephesus in search for his son, appear in court and the entire family is reunited. The musical comedy "The Boys From Syracuse" (1938) was based on "The Comedy of Errors."

 

The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center Inc. is a Puerto Rican/Latinx multi-arts cultural institution that demonstrates a broad-minded cultural vision and inclusive philosophy rooted in NYC’s Lower East Side/Loisaida. While focused on the cultivation, presentation, and preservation of Puerto Rican and Latinx culture, it is equally committed to a multi-ethnic / international latitude, determined to operate in a polyphonic manner that provides affordable working space and venues to artists, small arts organizations, emergent and independent community producers that reflect the cultural diversity of the Lower East Side and our City.

 

For info on other upcoming Drilling Company productions call 212-873-9050 or visit www.drillingcompany.org.

 

Rainout notices for Shakespeare in the Parking Lot will be posted on www.drillingcompany.org.

Photo credit: Jonathan Slaff

 

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