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presenters

Welcome to the Spymonkey private access presenters' page!

 

You can get free access to our on-demand videos on this page, as well as access to presenter information, technical information and images.

 

Spymonkey, the 'greatest clowns working in Britain today' (Time Out London), have been touring internationally since 2001. International venues and festivals have included:

 

  • HBO Aspen Comedy Festival
  • Just For Laughs Montreal
  • Sydney Opera House
  • Melbourne Comedy Festival
  • Leicester Square Theatre, London West End
  • London International Mime Festival
  • Edinburgh Festival
  • British Council tours of Taiwan, Syria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Romania, Mexico, Finland, Greece, France, Germany, Turkey
  • Commercial tours of Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland
  • Residencies include Zumanity / Cirque du Soleil, Las Vegas, Tipi am Kanzleramt Berlin and Palazzo Amsterdam

 

 

We currently have two touring shows in repertoire:

THE COMPLETE DEATHS AND COOPED.

 

Other works in our repertoire may also be available in the future depending on demand. Please enquire if you are interested in acquiring rights or licensing these or other Spymonkey shows.

 

UK and world touring

Emily Coleman / Spymonkey producer

emilycoleman@spymonkey.co.uk / tel: +44 7879 441815

 

US and Canada touring

Tim Robinson / 12 Corners Management NYC

timskyrob@gmail.com / tel: +1 702 332 5754

touring shows

A Spymonkey co-production with Brighton Festival and Royal & Derngate Northampton

 

★★★★ “A fabulous bloodbath” The Observer

 

★★★★★ “The funniest show about slaughter you'll ever see” Exeunt

 

There are 74 onstage deaths in the works of William Shakespeare - 75 if you count the black ill-favoured fly killed in Titus Andronicus.

 

★★★★ “Maestros” Financial Times

 

They range from the Roman suicides in Julius Caesar to the death fall of Prince Arthur in King John; from the carnage at the end of Hamlet to snakes in a basket in Antony & Cleopatra; from Pyramus and Thisbe to young Macduff. There are countless stabbings, plenty of severed heads, some poisonings, two mobbings and a smothering. Enorbarbus just sits in a ditch and dies from grief. And then there’s the pie that Titus serves the Queen of the Goths.

 

“Extraordinary. Brilliant virtuoso physical comedy. Dark and disturbing. Hilarious” BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review

 

Spymonkey will perform them all - sometimes lingeringly, sometimes messily, sometimes movingly, sometimes musically, always hysterically. The four ‘seriously, outrageously, cleverly funny clowns' (Time Magazine) will scale the peaks of sublime poetry, and plumb the depths of darkest depravity. It may even be the death of them.

 

“Life-affirming with a macabre twist… Rings with cynical complexity.” Chicago Tribune

 

Directed by Tim Crouch (Obie-winning creator of 'I, Malvolio', 'An Oak Tree', 'Adler & Gibb' at the Royal Court London) and designed by Spymonkey regular Lucy Bradridge, THE COMPLETE DEATHS opened in May 2016 at Brighton Festival to acclaim from audiences and critics alike, and has been delighting audiences around the world since then - a solemn, sombre, life-affirming and sublimely funny tribute to Shakespeare and death.

 

★★★★★ “Silly, clever, slapstick, vulgar and hysterically funny. Highly recommended” Around The Town Chicago

 

 

CREDITS

 

Adapted and directed by Tim Crouch

 

Created by Tim Crouch & Spymonkey:

Aitor Basauri, Stephan Kreiss, Petra Massey & Toby Park

 

Designed by Lucy Bradridge

Lighting design by Phil Supple

Music by Toby Park

Choreography by Theo Clinkard / Janine Fletcher

Video design Sam Bailey

Assistant Director Lucy Skilbeck

Voice Coach Nia Lynn for RSC

 

 

VIDEO

 

THE COMPLETE LIST of the Complete Deaths (2min promo 2018)

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COMPLETE DEATHS EXTRACTS (18 mins)

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PROMO VIDEO (2min UK tour 2016)

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FULL LENGTH SHOW
recorded at Shoreditch Town Hall London Sept 2016

 

ACT 1

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ACT 2

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SOUVENIR PROGRAMME

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More reviews, radio clips and interviews with the creative team on our main THE COMPLETE DEATHS page.

Outline

All of Shakespeare's onstage deaths, performed by "four of Britain's greatest clowns" (Time Out).

 

Playing Length

126 minutes (incl. 20 minute interval)

Act 1 56 mins / Act 2 50 mins

 

Stage Requirements

Min. stage area 8m wide x 8m deep

Designed for mid-scale spaces, can also accommodate larger studio spaces.

 

Audiences

Suitable for audiences 14+.

Contains smoke, haze, brief full-frontal nudity, profanity, blood, maiming, stabbings, poisonings and baking people in pies. Blame the Bard.

 

Performance History

Premiered at Brighton Festival May 2016

UK tour May to October 2016

Istanbul Festival May 2016

Vicenza Festival Italy Sept 2016

Chicago Shakespeare Theatre Dec 2016

 

More about the show on our main COMPLETE DEATHS pages.

Complete Deaths images

Outline

 

Playing Length

85 minutes (plus interval)

Act 1 45 mins / Act 2 40 mins

 

Stage Requirements

Min. stage area 8m wide x 8m deep.

 

Audiences

Suitable for audiences 14+.

 

Performance History

Premiered at Komedia Brighton UK 2001

 

More about the show on our main COOPED pages.

Spymonkey’s international comedy hit has delighted audiences from London's West End to Sydney Opera House and Just For Laughs Montreal, our longest-running show!

 

 

“Shriekingly, helplessly hilarious... Consummately executed... For all their gleeful, larky enjoyment wafting across the footlights like a blessing, these are serious virtuosi” The Times

 

 

Laura du Lay arrives at a remote country house to uncover a tale of murder, love and mistaken identity. Is the handsome Forbes Murdston insane? Is his mysterious manservant Klaus who he says he is? And are Laura’s terrible dreams a warning of further tragedy?

 

 

“A perfectly paced hybrid of the Pink Panther and Psycho” The Independent

 

 

In the best tradition of British comedy, from Monty Python to Fawlty Towers, Spymonkey ‘Cooped’ overflows with brilliant characters, visual humour, slapstick comedy, naughtiness and nudity – and features some of the funniest songs and dance routines you will ever see.

 

 

“One of the funniest pieces of theatre you will ever see” Time Out London

 

 

A misty night.

 

A young girl arrives at a remote railway station in the heart of darkest Northumberlandshirehampton to take up her position as confidential secretary to the reclusive Forbes Murdston. Beautiful, fawn-like, swinging, but a hostage to passion, Laura knows now that life - and love - will never be the same again...

 

...And her an orphan!

“Monty Python on acid” RBB TV Berlin

 

She has ignored for as long as she can the unsettling rumours that surround her new employer, his ominous manservant Klaus and the ancient mansion. But Murdston’s violent moodswings can only signify one thing: INSANITY!

 

Her terrible dreams seem to warn of some impending calamity. If only she could get word to Inspector Judadench to warn him. In her desperation she turns to the trusty family lawyer Roger Parchment. How can she leave Forbes now, now that he is so close to finishing his memoirs? How can she leave him when she has grown to love him?

 

Yes, now... now she is truly... COOPED!

 

 

directed by Cal McCrystal

designed by Lucy Bradridge

created by Cal McCrystal, Aitor Basauri, Petra Massey, Stephan Kreiss & Toby Park

 

 

More reviews, videos, images and interviews with the creators on our main COOPED pages.

 

2 MIN PROMO

 

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FULL LENGTH SHOW, BRIGHTON FESTIVAL

 

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EXCERPTS #1 - 16 mins

 

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EXCERPTS #2 - 13 mins

 

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FIGLEAF DANCE AT MELBOURNE COMEDY FESTIVAL GALA

 

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COOPED images

Clown masterclass to professional performers at The Smith Center Las Vegas 2012

Where we've been

We offer a range of educational activities to accompany performances of our work, taught by artistic directors Aitor Basauri, Petra Massey and Toby Park.

 

These include professional performance training for experienced actors and performers, graduate and undergraduate training programmes, introductory workshops for young people, and lectures on our creative process to universities, drama schools and vocational colleges.

 

Further information about the range of activities on offer are to be found on our Education pages.

 

Spymonkey are world renowned teachers of clown and performance. Some of the places we have taught include:

  • The National Theatre London
  • École Phillippe Gaulier, Paris
  • Cirque du Monde Foundation, Las Vegas
  • New York Clown Theatre Festival
  • The Clown School Los Angeles
  • University of Washington, Seattle
  • Celebration Barn Maine
  • Rote Nasen, Vienna Austria
  • Clown Doctors Europe
  • Taipei International Arts Festival Taiwan
  • Sam Houston State University, Texas USA
  • High Institute of Dramatic Art, Damascus, Syria
  • Festival del Theatro del Cuerpo, Mexico City & Queretaro
  • Northampton University
  • University of Kent
  • National Independent Schools Drama Association conference
  • Liverpool Everyman
  • STORM, Lyric Hammersmith London, collaboration with Push & Graeae –  (here for video clip)
  • Clown Lab, Salford University
  • Winchester University

 

 

Lectures have included:

  • National Independent Schools Drama Association, national conference 2012, A-level & GCSE syllabus company since 2012
  • Winchester University Performing Arts, Street Arts, Arts Administration Bachelor of Arts
  • UK National Centre for Circus Arts - Bachelor of Arts & BTEC courses
  • Kingston University Drama and Performance Bachelor of Arts
  • Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse
  • Nuffield Theatre, Southampton University
  • University of Kent at Canterbury, BA

 

UK and world touring

Emily Coleman / Spymonkey producer

emilycoleman@spymonkey.co.uk / tel: +44 (0)7879 441815

 

US and Canada touring

Tim Robinson / 12 Corners Management NYC

timskyrob@gmail.com / tel: +1 702 332 5754

web design by TORK

 

OFFICE: UNIT 7B LEVEL 3 NORTH, NEW ENGLAND HOUSE

NEW ENGLAND STREET BRIGHTON BN1 4GH UK

T: +44 (0)1273 045039

E: info@spymonkey.co.uk

 

 

 

 

OFFICE: UNIT 7B LEVEL 3 NORTH, NEW ENGLAND HOUSE

NEW ENGLAND STREET BRIGHTON BN1 4GH UK

T: +44 (0)7766 712757

E: info@spymonkey.co.uk

 

 

 

web design by TORK