Catch My Soul

Details:

4/22/16 7PM FREE

(Patrick McGoohan, 1974, USA, DCP, 97 min.)

Missing and presumed to be lost for years, it is difficult to believe that a film like Catch My Soul was ever made. Directed by Patrick McGoohan (famous for co-creating and starring in the 1960s television series The Prisoner), the film is a rock opera adaptation of Othello. In this version of Shakespeare’s play, set in a hippie commune, Othello is an evangelist and Iago is a Mephistophelian demon. Featuring an unusual cast of musicians from the 1970s including Richie Havens and Tony Joe White, Catch My Soul didn’t attract the same critical success as Jesus Christ Superstar (which was released only seven months prior). The film never found its audience and quickly faded into obscurity, from which it has only recently been resurrected. This screening will be projected from a new restoration scan of the recently located original negative.

This screening is the opening event of The Northwestern ShakespeaRevel, sponsored by the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities, and it is part of Shakespeare 400 Chicago, spearheaded by Chicago Shakespeare Theater.