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Spymonkey, Cooped Premiere Dance Theatre March 5-14 Cooped SPYMONKEY with their dark, edgy physical comedy rooted ‘somewhere between Monty Python, the Marx Brothers and Samuel Beckett’ (The Houston Chronicle), and a quartet of performers from Spain, Germany and England, Spymonkey have proved to be a truly international phenomenon, enjoyed by and accessible to a wide range of international audiences. The cultural and linguistic diversity of the group, and their unique blend of physical comedy and explosive surrealism has won them a deserved international reputation: at the time of writing they have performed in 17 countries from the US, Canada and Mexico to Syria and Taiwan. International promoters spotted early on the opportunity that Spymonkey’s work offers: original work that simultaneously represents the best in contemporary British theatre and rich comic entertainment. In the words of Patrick Brazier, head of the British Council in Damascus, Spymonkey are a ‘superlative example to the world that there is more to British theatrical culture than just Shakespeare.’ Company History 1997 Aitor, Petra and Toby meet while working with the Swiss action-theatre group Karl’s Kühne Gassenschau in Zürich. Atop a mountain in France they conceive Spymonkey and set about fi nding a director. In December they work for a week with inspirational comedy director Cal McCrystal at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. 1998 ‘Stiff’ is created with writer/director Cal McCrystal over 6 weeks at the tiny Actors’ Creative Training Studio in Brighton, and premieres at the Komedia Theatre Brighton on December 14th. It briefl y tours England and Switzerland. 2000 In April Stephan Kreiss joins the company. A reworked ‘Stiff’ tours Switzerland, Austria and the UK. One of the hits of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, it wins wide critical acclaim and a Total Theatre Award. 1 2001 ‘Stiff’ plays at the Purcell Room as part of the London Mime Festival and at the Riverside Studios London; the US Comedy Festival Aspen and Houston Texas (winner of the Houston Press Award, best touring show 2001); the British Council Showcase Edinburgh; tours to Hungary, Finland, Spain, Mexico, France, Ireland and Syria. ‘Cooped’, created with writer/director Cal McCrystal, opens for a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe and tours UK. 2002 ‘Cooped’ performs at the Purcell Room as part of the London Mime Festival, at BAC London and tours Hungary and Finland. ‘Stiff’ tours to Canada, Taiwan, Romania, Czech Republic, Greece, France; Double Bill at the Paramount Comedy Festival, Brighton. 2003 Double Bill at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London Mime Festival; Rehearsals for ‘Zumanity - Another side of Cirque du Soleil’ in Montreal and Las Vegas. Shooting of a Spymonkey episode of Cirque Images’ ‘Solstrom’ series for Bravo Cable Network; ‘Zumanity’ opens in its own purpose-built theatre at the New York-New York Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, on August 14th. 2004 ‘Zumanity’ continues its run in Las Vegas. The feature length documentary ‘Lovesick’, about the creation of ‘Zumanity’, by Emmy-Award-winner Lewis Cohen, has its theatrical release. Program Description Spymonkey present a newly extended version of their deliciously demented take on the pulp gothic novella. The great English tragedian Forbes Murdston brings together Spanish soap star Alfredo Gravés, German Expressionist Udo Keller and pop diva Mandy Bandy to do battle over the soul of Murdston' s romantic drama. The action takes place some time in the 1960s at Birch End, the dilapitated ancient seat of the Murdstons. 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! 2 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! Show History Cooped was originally developed with writer-director Cal McCrystal and designer Lucy Bradridge in the spring of 2001 at Riverside Studios and BAC in London, and Teatro Ticino in Switzerland. It premiered at the Komedia Brighton on 17th July 2001, and enjoyed a rapturous reception at the Edinburgh Festival that summer. Its ensuing UK tour confirmed the show as a favourite amongst audiences and critics alike. Performances have included London Mime Festival and Brighton Paramount Comedy Festival in 2002 and at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in 2003, and toured internationally to Ireland, Hungary, Finland and Switzerland with support from the British Council. Following their residency in ZUMANITY - ANOTHER SIDE OF CIRQUE DU SOLEIL in Las Vegas, in October 2005 Spymonkey created an extended 2-act version of the show at the One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre in Calgary Canada. This show, redesigned for medium-scale venues, is currently on an international tour which includes Arosa Comedy Festival, the Coronet Theatre Athens, Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Comedy Festival, Brighton Festival and Edinburgh Festival. BIOGRAPHIES & CREDITS Biography Aitor Basuri (joint artistic director & performer) studied at the Centro Andaluz de Teatro in Seville and at the Philippe Gaulier School in London. Performed in The Servant of Two Masters at Sheffield Crucible (1996), Axomate at the Seville Expo (1992), Eulenspiegel (1991) and 3 in Karl’s Kuhne Gassenchau’s Grand Paradis and Stau in Zurich (1997 and 1998). Director of Little Prince for Donkey Productions (1997), Un Vento Impetuoso for La Canoppia (1996) and Meci Y Me Fui for Pez Enraya ( 1997). In 1999 he appeared in Circus Knie, the Swiss State Circus, and in 2000 formed his own company Punto Fijo, based in Bilbao. Appeared in Cirque Images’ 2003 series Solstrom for Bravo Cable Network. Petra Massey (joint artistic director & performer) BA (Hons) in Performing Arts at Middlesex University. Trained with Philippe Gaulier and John Wright in London. Worked extensively in street theatre and stand-up around the world, before forming her own company and performing her successful one-woman show Panic in Canada, New Zealand and the UK. Directed and performed with Mamaloucos in Mama Loves Ya (1996) and in the same year joined Karl’s Kuhne Gassenchau for Grand Paradis (1997), S.T.E.I.N.B.R.U.C.H (1997), and Stau (1998) in Switzerland. In 1999 she appeared with Circus Knie, and in 2000 trained and worked with De La Guarda at The Roundhouse, London. Appeared in Cirque Images’ 2003 series Solstrom for Bravo Cable Network. Toby Park (joint artistic director & performer) BA (Hons) in Drama at Hull University. Trained at Fool Time Circus School, Bristol, and with Philippe Gaulier and Monika Pagneaux in Paris. From 1994-97 he was co-musical director and actor with Karl’s Kuhne Gassenchau in Zurich, creating with them S.T.E.I.N.B.R.U.C.H (1994-7), R.U.P.T.U.R.E (1995) and Grand Paradis (1997). Played Othello in BAC Walking Orchestra’s Othello Music (1999). Improvising musician on Improbable Theatre’s Lifegame (1998) with an off-Broadway run in 2000, and Animo (1999), . Musical director and composer for: Guy Dartnell’s Would Say Something (1998), winner of the Time Out Best of the Fringe Award ‘98; Circus Space shows Investments (1999) and The Event (1999) with the Millennium Dome aerial performers; acro-dancetheatre Mimbre’s Sprung (2001) and Trip-Tic (2003). Appeared in Cirque Images’ 2003 series Solstrom for Bravo Cable Network. Stephan Kreiss (performer). Joined Spymonkey in 2000. Trained with Philippe Gaulier and Monika Pagneux and with Atelier International de l’Acteur (Paris 1987/88). Theatre credits include Notfalls Belau and The Pool for YBY in Salzburg; Hello, We Must Be Going and The Marx Brothers with Jos Houben and Johnny Hutch; Penny Dreadful for the Right Size; Notre Dame de Paris, La Tulipe Noir and Tale of Two Cities for Theatre Sans Frontieres. Tours as Der Legendäre Lustige in Germany and Austria with his one-man-show Hilfe - Ich Bin Unsterblich. Appeared in Cirque Images’ 2003 series Solstrom for Bravo Cable Network. 4 Cal McCrystal (writer/director) Trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama and with Philippe Gaulier and Pierre Byland. Has worked frequently as an actor in television, theatre, film and radio. Directing credits include Let the Donkey Go, I’m a Coffee and Horses for Courses for Peepolykus; Between a Rock and a Hard Place, and This Way Up for Cambridge Footlights; The Mighty Boosh (Perrier Best New Comedy Award Winners 1998, now a BBC TV series) and AutoBoosh (2000); Mel & Sue’s Back to our Roots Tour (1999); Peggy Lee (2000) and Music to Watch Boys By (2001) by Kate Dimbleby; Your Name Here’s Gladiatrix (2002); Loot (2003) by Joe Orton and Kafka’s Dick (2004) by Alan Bennett for Derby Playhouse. Director of Clowns for Cirque du Soleil’s Varekai (2002) and Zumanity (2003). Director of Comedy for Cirque Images’ 2003 series Solstrom for Bravo Cable Network. Lucy Bradridge (production design) BA English Literature from Leeds University; Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Theatre Practice at Central School of Speech and Drama. Has designed numerous theatre and comedy shows including Wizard of Oz by Dog Theatre (1997); Between a Rock and a Hard Place (1998) and This Way Up (1999) by the Cambridge Footlights; the Mel & Sue Back to our Roots tour (1999); the Opn Mike Award for Avalon Productions (2000-2002); AutoBoosh (2000); Snowbound (1999) at the Etcetera London; Kate Dimbleby’s Peggy Lee (2000) and Music to Watch Boys By (2001); and The Last Chancers (2003) comedy series for Angel Eye TV/Channel 4. Credits Created by: Cal McCrystal, Aitor Basauri, Stephan Kreiss, Petra Massey, Toby Park Director: Cal McCrystal Production design: Lucy Bradridge Technical manager & lighting : Petter Skramstad Stage manager: Angela Weiss Technical assistant: Roger Volkart Design consultant: Graeme Gilmour Incidental music & sound design: Toby Park '4xinLove'written & produced by Neil Filby & Toby Park 2001 Diva remix by Jean-François Houle guest vocalist Corinne Zarzour 'Mr Sandman'original composition by Pat Ballard 1954 Production: Toby Park & Jean-François Thibeault Drums: Larry Aberman Double bass: Simon Dolan Piano: Eliot Douglass Love Sounds th'Alarm by GF Handel Harpsichord: Peter McCarthy 5 Voice coaches: Peter Bugler & Eliot Douglass Video production: Lorna Heavey Cameraman: James Nutt Video nun: Zoe Bywater Choreography: Laetitia Thackeray Photographs: David O' Driscoll, Bernhard Fuchs, Tork, Sean Dennie Graphic design: Tork management: Kathy Bourne 1st UK Performance: 17th July 2001, Komedia Brighton REVIEWS The Montreal Gazette | July 13, 2007| Anne Sutherland | 598 words Fart jokes and all, this fun is high art I walked out of the Centaur Theatre on Wednesday night with absolutely no idea what I had just seen, but smiling all the same. Spymonkey' s Cooped is one bizarre theatrical performance but it is engaging, ridiculous and very, very funny. This ensemble, comprising a Spaniard, a German and two Brits, have been together since 2000 and have conceived and performed not only Cooped but another show called Stiff and were part of Cirque du Soleil' s adult Vegas act Zumanity. That should give you a clue that they aren' t shy about doffing their duds on stage. Spymonkey' s Cooped is part of the Just for Laughs comedy festival and judging by the audience reaction (a standing O), it could be a crowd favourite this year. It helps if you are a fan of the sitcom, early comedy acts and Pink Panther movies if you are to get the many sight gags and references, but not entirely necessary. Elements of The Three Stooges, Fawlty Towers, gothic soaps, British bedroom farce and some song and dance choreography la Monty Python are all rolled into one in this performance that defies description, but here' s the gist: A pretty young girl, Laura du Lay, arrives at a remote country manor in England. There she meets attractive but seemingly disturbed Forbes Murdston, an upperclass twit. He has an ominous butler, Klaus, who bears a striking resemblance to 6 Bull from Night Court. There' s a lawyer, Roger Parchment, whose accent is vintage Clouseau. An Inspector Detective Judadench, an Italian bishop and three ultra-conservative Jews are also along for the ride. Laura falls for Forbes but there are complications. Klaus hates Parchment and insults him at every turn. The three Jews are part of a dream sequence. And the bishop? Who knows what that' s all about, but his ring-kissing routine brought down the house, including his fellow actor who could barely keep a straight face. There are four actor/comedians playing these parts and all are gifted. Petra Massey is a very acrobatic Laura, Stephen Kreiss is a hysterical Klaus, right down to the John Cleese German soldier routine. Toby Park plays Forbes as a fey, young Christopher Plummer look-alike and does a funny turn as a fig-leafed sprite. Stealing the show, but only by a tiny bit, is Aitor Basauri as Parchment/Judadench/the bishop. Comparisons can be made to Peter Sellers in Basauri' s performance but he also resembles a beefier and butchier Kevin Spacey. He endures all manner of kicks to the groin, bird droppings on his head and numerous swipes of his toupEe. There are also fart jokes and a Ping-Pong bit right out of Priscilla Queen of the Desert. It sounds very puerile and it is, but these comedians make it work. The staging is done in such a way that the audience is in on the joke and at certain times the actors speak right to the paying customers. It ain' t high art but it is highly entertaining. You owe it to yourself to just sit back and laugh. Spymonkey is at the Centaur Theatre, 453 St. FrancoisXavier St., tonight to Sunday and July 17 to 22 at 7:30 p.m. For info, 514-845-2322 or www.hahaha.com [http://www.hahaha.com]. The Times | August 5, 2006| Lucy Powell | 1264 words Leaving Las Vegas> Interview> Spymonkey> Stage 7 After three years in ' Sin City' , Spymonkey are bringing it all -minus prosthetic penises -back home, says Lucy Powell I can honestly say I don' t miss any of it," says Spymonkey' s Petra Massey of her company' s most bizarre adventure to date. "The swimming pools, maybe, the parties, never, the prosthetic penises we had to leave behind, well yes. Other than that, all I can say is that we' re really, really happy to be home, and we can' t wait for Edinburgh." Spymonkey are back at the festival, after an enigmatic hiatus of five years, with an extended version of Cooped. A determinedly ridiculous spoof of a Gothic novella, in which a strange, introverted genius, Forbes Murdstone, and his clique of oddball European staff, welcome a passionate, innocent young woman into their malevolent fold, Cooped earned the foursome rapturous critical acclaim and a global tour when it first hit the festival in 2001. It was also the springboard for a three-year residency in Las Vegas, performing with one of the largest entertainment companies in North America: the seemingly unstoppable Cirque du Soleil. "They asked our director, Cal McCrystal, to direct the clowns for their adult, erotic show, Zumanity," explains Massey' s chiselled, deadpan cohort Toby Park, sheepishly. "And we were his first choice." McCrystal has been with the company since its inception, directing and co-devising its first show, Stiff, which opened in Edinburgh in 2000. Together with European counterparts Aitor Basauri and Stephan Kreiss, Spymonkey earned themselves a Total Theatre award for their demented, neatly choreographed clowning antics, strung together on the loosest of funereal plots, which they developed for Cooped the following year. "And then Cal asked us to go to Vegas," Park explains. "We thought really carefully about it but we weren' t all that worried, because we' d be working with him. We didn' t know what we were getting ourselves into when we said yes." Vegas is the fastest-growing city in America; the second fastest in the world. It' s a town in which the New York skyline and the Eiffel Tower have been recreated as hotels, or, in Vegasese, "entertainment complexes" replete with a choice of thousand-seat theatres, spas, and tier upon tier of 24-hour casinos. It seems an unlikely home for a downbeat European fringe company who met in a circus in Switzerland and devised Stiff atop a French mountain. Listening to their tales of tacky, superficial glamour and backstage agony, it seems that Vegas proved the best and the worst of times for the company. 8 Rehearsing in the enormous Cirque du Soleil complex in Montreal was, according to Massey, "the time of our lives. We came up with some of our best material ever and the sets they built us were just mind-blowing." Then a month before they were due to open, "They fired the producer who had brought us over. It became a horrible, horrible experience," Park winces at the memory. "Nobody creatively understood what we were trying to do or liked us at all. They' d spent thousands of dollars on these sketches that were ready to go, really funny, silly stuff, and then they just came by one day and cut it all. Just like that." "We had two weeks to prepare. They threw us on stage with nothing." Massey chips in: "There we were, in this $70 million theatre in Vegas, improvising our a**** off in front of all these VIPs they' d invited for the opening." And? "We bombed," Park replies calmly. "Not just us," Massey adds. "The whole show died. They fired so many people they didn' t have a finale, so they used our pompom routine. It' s a good piece, but it' s not a finale for a big Vegas show. Four fat ugly Europeans coming on with pompoms, in the nude." "We didn' t know quite how fat and ugly we were until we got to Vegas," says Park. "It took us time to get the energy right and to understand the audience. It sounds like a cliche to say that Middle America doesn' t get irony, but we found out that it' s true. Unfortunately we found that out on stage in front of thousands of people." By the end of their two years, they felt they had a great show. "And the sketches Cirque cut because they thought they were too rude were way tamer than what we did at the end," says Massey. "We were absolutely filthy, but the audience loved it." It seems amazing that a town dubbed Sin City might raise an eyebrow at the antics of four fat, ugly Europeans, but, Park explains: "One of the paradoxes of Vegas is that sexual morality is enforced by the Nevada Liquor Board: you' re not allowed to be nude if there' s alcohol served on the premises." "For our pompom routine I fought tooth and nail for us to be naked, but no way," explains Massey. "So at vast Cirque du Soleil expense the boys had to have these prosthetic penises while I had to wear a merkin, a little G-string made of 9 someone else' s pubic hair. Sometimes real penises would pop out and everybody would get all jittery because the show could be closed down." It wasn' t, and, as an impressive array of celebrity snaps proves, Spymonkey moved in the very best of Vegas circles. Pamela Anderson, Duran Duran, Bette Midler and Demi Moore were, Park says, "absolutely horrified to meet us. All the beautiful people they' d actually come backstage to invite to their parties were still in makeup, so they got us. We were never in the cool gang." "We tried," Massey counters, "but it never really worked." And when at the end of the two years Cirque offered them another contract, "none of us batted an eyelid turning all that money down," Massey says. "It' s not worth it. It' s too mad." Park reflects: "We had a great time, and the weirdness of the environment really pulled us together as a group. But it wasn' t the right place for us at all. You spend years trying to scrape by with no money and you think if only we had a bit more we could do all the things we wanted. But we found out that money doesn' t help, sometimes it' s actively a hindrance." The new Cooped, Park promises, is very much Spymonkey business as usual. The previews we' ve done of it in Brighton were just incredible. We thought we' d be forgotten in England, but in fact there' s a huge amount of support for us here. We really felt we were coming back to our roots." In December, the company starts work on its new show, Bless, about the lives of the saints. The costume budget will be a pittance compared to what they had at Cirque du Soleil, but no one is complaining: "There' s one new scene in Cooped which Cirque cut from Zumanity," Massey explains. "They' d built us this insanely expensive set and then just axed it. Well, we couldn' t keep any of the props, but do you know what? We' ve built something for about a fiver which works just as well." Park nods in agreement: "That' s the Spymonkey method." WEBSITE http://www.spymonkey.co.uk/coopedhome.html 10