Nothing to do with dogma

“The Comedy of Errors” at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels?

Shakespeare Festival/LA is bringing Shakespeare’s rowdy gagfest to the plaza of the downtown center of L.A.’s Roman Catholic community July 27 to 31. For those unfamiliar with the play, it’s based on a pagan Roman precursor. Although it’s set in Ephesus, its tone is hardly that of the New Testament’s Ephesians. Its characters are far from celibate, and its moral is far from discernible.

No matter, says Tod Tamberg, spokesman for the Los Angeles Archdiocese. Plays on the plaza “don’t have to be religious.” The cathedral is “part of the civic fabric downtown.” The church has always sponsored the arts, he adds.

Both Tamberg and Shakespeare Festival/LA artistic director Ben Donenberg say noise from the nearby Hollywood Freeway should not be a problem. Noise levels are high next to the cathedral but not in the center of the plaza, Donenberg says.

The cathedral is asking the festival to pay only for security, parking attendants and electricity, he says -- about $1,000 per performance. And although the festival’s venue for the last five years, Pershing Square, was free, the cathedral offers better bathrooms, 800 upholstered and folding chairs, and a restaurant.

Also, the festival is saving money this year by importing “The Comedy of Errors” from the New York-based Aquila Theatre Company instead of creating a production of its own. Aquila’s “Comedy,” partly inspired by the Tintin books of the Belgian writer-artist known as Herge, played La Jolla Playhouse in 2003.

After the cathedral run, the production will move to a week of paid-admission performances at the South Coast Botanic Garden in Palos Verdes.

-- Don Shirley