Knight Arts grantee Pig Iron Theatre Company has been providing Philadelphia with quality, original theatrical performances since 1995. As part of this season’s Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe, another Knight Arts grantee, Pig Iron has tackled its first full-on interpretation of a “classic” script with its production of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” or “What You Will.”

To stumble into this drunken rumpus of a comedy, Pig Iron uses music as its starting point. Before the action even begins, members of a ragtag band of Balkan musicians slowly make their way to the corner of the stage, complete with incriminating sunglasses and shady fedoras. The gypsy jazz selected for this production is appropriate not only geographically (the play is set in Illyria near modern-day Albania) but because it makes a great soundtrack for a booze-soaked party with its driving rhythms and whomping horns. The band constantly disappears and reappears, interacts with the cast and is often used for melodramatic effect or silenced by the hysterical Duke.

As is often the case with Shakespeare’s comedies, the dilemma begins with a case of mistaken identity. Two twins, Viola and Sebastian, are on a ship that sinks. Each thinking the other dead, Viola disguises herself as a boy to gain admittance to Duke Orsino’s court, while he attempts to woo Countess Olivia. In the process, Viola falls in love with the Duke, and, to make things worse, the Countess falls in love with the disguised Viola. Gender-bending chaos and practical jokes ensue (plus more than a little drinking).

The costumes are about as eclectic as the rest of the performance and lend themselves splendidly to their characters. The duo of Viola-in-disguise and Sebastian both don the same dark, Freddie Mercury-esque military jacket with epaulets. The Duke — the drama queen of the production and first character we meet — dresses head to toe in white with a pink corsage. Most raucous of the characters, Olivia’s constantly smashed uncle, Sir Toby, strides onstage looking like a spitting image of The Dude from “The Big Lebowski.” He wears only cowboy boots and a robe, from which he pretty much immediately pulls a bottle of booze. Later, he sports a not-so-chic pink leisure suit and some gold chains over an equally tacky Hawaiian shirt.

A sort of skateboarding half pipe makes up a large part of the set and the cast use it to full advantage. Characters run up the ramp to the overlooking balcony, lean or stand on it for dramatic effect and, as is often the case with set pieces and Sir Toby, drunkenly trip over it. The rest of the set is deceivingly complex, with a number of doors, doorways, stairs and curtains. Furniture moves off and onstage almost as fast as the characters do. With perhaps an even higher turnover rate are the many types of alcohol containers, which make an appearance onstage: bottles, flasks and wine carriers. In the bedlam, these containers occasionally make splashes onto the stage and into the audience.

Pig Iron takes Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” to an anachronistic and hilariously new locale at this year’s Live Arts Festival. From the Balkan band’s barrage of beats to the sleazy costumes and equally trashy characters, this production is everything you could hope for in a contemporary Shakespearean comedy. Fun and funny, crude and rude, you still have a few days to catch this show, and you definitely should.

You can seethis production of “Twelfth Night” at Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480 S. Broad St.; 215.413.9006.