Pig Iron's TWELFTH NIGHT Set for 12/4-22

Called a "wild rumpus of a show" by the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2011, Pig Iron Theatre Company's raucous, spirited Twelfth Night, or What You Will returns to Philadelphia for a three-week holiday engagement at FringeArts' new waterfront theater, Dec. 4-22, 2013. Buoyed by live Balkan-inspired music performed by members of the West Philadelphia Orchestra, Pig Iron's exuberant staging of the Shakespeare comedy breathes new life into the Bard's classic script with equal measures of absurdity and heart. Tickets to Twelfth Night, or What You Will are available now by calling 215-413-1318 or visiting fringearts.ticketleap.com.

Dueling musicians, wine-drenched debauchery, depressive noblemen, idiots and veteran jesters, religious zealots and erotic misunderstandings are mixed into a new visual and aural approach to Shakespeare, using Pig Iron's highly physical performance style to embrace one of the Bard's most wicked plots. Replete with practical jokes, gender confusion and mistaken identity, this much-loved production exploits Shakespeare's wordplay with funny, unpredictable immediacy.

Says director Dan Rothenberg, "This is not an intervention into expectations about Shakespeare - this is an attempt to bring everything Pig Iron has learned about theater from a decade and a half of creating original work to bear on the problem of turning Shakespearean text into clear, vibrant and alive theater."

A sold-out smash hit at the 2011 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Twelfth Night's world premiere garnered four Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre. The Onion's AV Club called it "the best Shakespeare we've ever seen," and Time Out New York praised the show as "a marvelous piece of entertainment." Said the Philadelphia City Paper, "Pig Iron's Twelfth Night is true to Shakespeare (a good thing), and truly Pig Iron (a very good thing). ... After all the laughs, something elegant remains. Pure magic."

The 2013 production of Twelfth Night brings back original cast members, including Dito van Reigersberg, Alex Torra, James Sugg and Birgit Huppuch; and introduces new faces, including Jaime Maseda, Charleigh E. Parker and more. Music is by Rosie Langabeer (Cankerblossom, Live Arts Festival, 2010), with set design by Maiko Matsushima. Previous Pig Iron presentations at the Live Arts Festival include Welcome to Yuba City (2009) and Pay Up (2005 and '13).

To purchase tickets, call 215-413-1318 or visit fringearts.ticketleap.com.