presenters’ area
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 HYSTERIA.
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
THE COMPLETE DEATHS
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)
COMPLETE DEATHS EXTRACTS (18 mins)
PROMO VIDEO (2min UK tour 2016)
FULL LENGTH SHOW
recorded at Shoreditch Town Hall London Sept 2016
ACT 1
ACT 2
SOUVENIR PROGRAMME
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
photograph by John Hunter for RULER / thisisruler.net
photograph by John Hunter for RULER / thisisruler.net
photograph by John Hunter for RULER / thisisruler.net
photograph by John Hunter for RULER / thisisruler.net2
photographs by John Hunter for RULER / thisisruler.net
photograph by Vic Frankowski
photograph by Vic Frankowski
photograph by Ludovic des Cognets
photograph by Andy Parker
photograph by Ludovic des Cognets
photographby Ludovic des Cognets
photographby Ludovic des Cognets
photographby Ludovic des Cognets
photograph by Ludovic des Cognets
sample UK tour flyer 2016
sample UK tour flyer 2016
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SPYMONKEY’S HYSTERIA
Outline
A spooky mansion, a plucky young heroine, a handsome English gent. Add a German butler and a Spanish soap star and you're... COOPED!
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!
Originally entitled 'Cooped', the show underwent a rebranding for its 2019 US debut at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts, Tampa FL, to become HYSTERIA .
“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?
Prepare for an evening of true... HYSTERIA!
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 HYSTERIA pages.
HYSTERIA PROMO (USA 2019)
FULL LENGTH SHOW, LIVERPOOL PLAYHOUSE
These videos are password protected, please use; cooped2019
EXCERPTS #1 - 16 mins
EXCERPTS #2 - 13 mins
FIGLEAF DANCE AT MELBOURNE COMEDY FESTIVAL GALA
HYSTERIA images
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PHOTOGRAPH BY SEAN DENNIE
PHOTOGRAPH BY SEAN DENNIE
PHOTOGRAPH BY SEAN DENNIE
PHOTOGRAPH BY SEAN DENNIE
PHOTOGRAPH BY SEAN DENNIE
PHOTOGRAPH BY SEAN DENNIE
PHOTOGRAPH BY SEAN DENNIE
PHOTOGRAPH BY BERNHARD FUCHS
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PHOTOGRAPH BY JANE HOBSON36
PHOTOGRAPH BY BERNHARD FUCHS
PHOTOGRAPH BY BERNHARD FUCHS
PHOTOGRAPH BY BERNHARD FUCHS
PHOTOGRAPH BY BERNHARD FUCHS
PHOTOGRAPH BY BERNHARD FUCHS
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TRAINING & EDUCATION
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
TOUR BOOKING & CONTACTS
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
