Spymonkey's Moby Dick

Smooth Flavour for the Ladies Man.

“A laugh’s the wisest, easiest answer to all that’s queer, and come what will, one comfort’s always left...”

Stubb, Moby Dick, ch. 39

There are as many reasons for Spymonkey not to attempt to do Moby Dick as there are members of the company, and probably many more besides. And that is precisely why I was delighted to take on the challenge of this project. My curiosity was less to discover what Spymonkey would do to the story of Moby Dick than what the story would do to them. And what effect that encounter would have on me.

And more importantly, on you.

I have no doubt that you will laugh and be hugely entertained, but my sincere hope is some memories from this show will come back to you, like whalesong from the deep.

Jos Houben, September 2009

A fabulous beauty care range to soften the hands of the horniest harpooneer.

On sale in the foyer now.

Whether it’s diving into the rich foam of Aloe Sailor bubble bath, or getting slippy with Soapy Dick shower gel, we know you’ll enjoy taking these memories of a wonderful theatrical evening home with you to enjoy in the intimacy of your bathroom or dinner party.

Being a

We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without the support of a huge number of friends, sponsors, business partners and, most valued of all, punters. Well, now we are asking for MORE help from you. Yes that’s how BRASS NECKED we are, we’re getting down to BRASS TACKS. We’re asking you to MUCK in, and give us some of your hard-earned BRASS. You won’t be BRASSED OFF with the BRASSY pleasures you’ll be getting in return.

Got the message? Enough BRASS puns now?

Sign up - you know it’ll make you feel GOOOOOOOOD........

Yours sincerely, Toby Park Aitor Basauri Petra Massey Spymonkey Artistic Directors TO JOIN Visit www.spymonkey.co.uk and follow the links Or write to us at: Membership, Spymonkey, Unit 7B Level 3N, New England House, New England St, Brighton BN1 4GH Don’t forget to indicate your preferred membership, and to include a cheque for the correct amount, made out to SPYMONKEY.

costs £25 per year. Benefits include: • priority booking for all Spymonkey shows • discounts on Spymonkey workshops • a membership pack including a BADGE OF HONOUR • sneak previews of Spymonkey videos and music tracks • inclusion in the BRASSmonkey roll of honour on our website and programme

costs £125 per year, and gives you all the benefits of a BRASSmonkey plus: • a special edition CD of original Spymonkey tracks • a Moby Dick organic bubble bath, or Moby Dick Brand line-caught tuna fish (depending on your inclination) • inclusion in the SILVERmonkey roll of honour on our website and programme

costs £250 per year, and makes you an extremely big spymonkey-cheese indeed, giving you additionally: • inclusion in the GOLDmonkey roll of honour on our website and programme (and in the case of corporate GOLDmonkeys, a link and logo on our well-visited website) • personalised ringtone or voicemail message from one of the Spymonkeys • limited edition DVD of ‘Spymonkey’s Cooped’ not available for sale • a backstage tour for you and your guests - an insiders’ glimpse into the secret world of Spymonkey

SPYMONKEY AND ROYAL & DERNGATE NORTHAMPTON PRESENT

starring

AITOR BASAURI PETRA MASSEY TOBY PARK STEPHAN KREISS director

Jos Houben ASSOCIATE directOR

ROB THIRTLE DESIGN

LUCY BRADRIDGE GRAEME GILMOUR LIGHTING DESIGN

PHIL SUPPLE ORIGINAL MUSIC

tony parks

Hi. People often ask me why, given the choice of worldclass actors queuing up to work with Compagnie Tony Parks, do you insist on working with an ensemble of non-famous actors drawn from the world of obscure European theatre. Surely, they insist, you would be better off working with actors of the calibre of Patrick Stewart or Penelope Keith? But they miss the point!

Tony Parks, are waiting for? Are you not at the pinnacle of your abilities as an actor manager? To hide your light under a bushel is a grave sin. In the words of Robin Williams in Dead Poets’ Society: Carpe Diem, Tony.’? Is it death himself, or a one-time journeyman sailor who would one day write one of the greatest works in the English language, a novel which marks the ocean of difference between ‘the greatest English novel’ and ‘the greatest novel in English’?

I believe strongly that the best work comes through building an ensemble, a tight-knit unit encompassing a wide range of abilities over many decades - look at Little and Large. I am unapologetic in my stalwart defence of this collaborative approach. Beyond what we save on get-outs with the extra pairs of hands and the extra subsidy from the European Union (which actually barely covers the extra travel - thank heavens for Ryanair and charging for toilet breaks), it brings a quality to the work that is all too lacking in these days of Hollywood stars and reality TV shows in the West End. It’s almost as if people had never heard of Jerzy Grotowski’s Teatr Laboratorium, w którym ucieleśnił ideę „teatru ubogiego”.

When he died in 1891, a man finally defeated by the fickle whims of literary fame and fortune, Melville’s wife found a tiny motto on a slip of paper glued to the inside of the desk, the desk on which he had written no more than poetry for thirty years. Each morning when he opened his drawer to take out another piece of foolscap (as white as Moby Dick himself, so terrifyingly blank! - a horror that only the great writer can know) he would read:

I have always felt a peculiarly personal connection with Herman Melville and his remarkable nouvel de baleine.

I remember from my days at Lanchester Polytechnic (yes, a First - in their radical but now much-imitated BA (special hons) Dramatic Theory and Practice for the Modern Actor Manager) the more ambitious members of my set would dream: one day, probably long in the future, we would feel able to answer the noble calling, a calling that all actor-managers worth their salt know they must.

I dreamt it.

As I reach the outer fringes of middle age, as my hair is flecked with the first silken strands of silver, whom is it I can sense looming over my shoulder, his cold foetid breath on my cheek? Who is it that whispers: ‘Tony. Tony, even you won’t be around forever. What is it that you,

‘Keep true to the dreams of thy youth.’

And who am I to deny you, Herman Melville?

And now it is your turn, gentle audience, to try to survive it.

Bon Voyage.

Et merci.

Tony Parks New Bedford Holiday Inn, July 2009

photo: Pete Jones

Amsterdam rehearsal sessions, January 2009

Spymonkey Timeline 1997 Aitor, Petra and Toby meet and share a caravan dressing room with the Swiss action-theatre group Karl’s Kühne Gassenschau in Zürich. Atop a mountain in Ardeche France they conceive Spymonkey with fourth member Paul Weilenmann. In December they work for a week with comedy director and writer Cal McCrystal at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.

1998 ‘Stiff ’, a clown comedy about undertakers, is created with Cal McCrystal and designer Lucy Bradridge over 6 weeks at the tiny Actors’ Creative Training Studio in Brighton, and premieres at the Komedia Theatre on December 14th. It briefly tours arts centres in England and Switzerland.

2000 In April Stephan Kreiss joins the company. A reworked ‘Stiff ’ tours Switzerland, Austria and the UK. A big hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, it wins wide critical acclaim and a Total Theatre Award.

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’, a gothic pulp romance, is created with writer/director Cal McCrystal, and opens for a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe.

2002 ‘Cooped’ performs at the Purcell Room as part of the London Mime Festival, at BAC London and tours UK, 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 with Naomi Campbell; ‘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 featurelength documentary ‘Lovesick’, about the creation of ‘Zumanity’ by Emmy-Award-winning Lewis Cohen, has its theatrical release.

2005 In July Spymonkey become the first physical comedy group ever to appear in Playboy. In August they leave Las Vegas to return to international touring with a reworked version of ‘Cooped’ which opens at the Big Secret Theatre, Calgary.

2006 ‘Cooped’ tours to Athens, Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Comedy Festival, and is relaunched in the UK with sell-out performances at the Theatre Royal, Brighton Festival, and the Edinburgh Fringe. Glynis Henderson Productions become Spymonkey’s management company. TV appearances at the Melbourne Oxfam Gala, and on Granada’s ‘Comedy Cuts’.

2007 Bless is created, directed by Cal McCrystal and designed

by Lucy Bradridge and Graeme Gilmour, and previews in Switzerland, Brighton and Newbury and is nominated for 3 Betty Mitchell Awards in Calgary Canada. Cooped at the Just For Laughs Festival Montreal, South Bank Centre, regional UK touring and Espoo Finland. TV appearances alongside George Lopez, William Shatner and Ardal O’Hanlon at Just For Laughs. ‘Stiff ’ at the Tron Theatre Glasgow.

2008 Tours of ‘Cooped’ to Toronto Harbourfront, Holland, Belgium and ‘Stiff ’ in Finland. The first phase of developement work on ‘Moby Dick’ with writer/director Jos Houben begins.

New cabaret numbers for Miss Behave’s Variety Nighty at Camden Roundhouse, directed by Cal McCrystal. Spymonkey are the hosts of Palazzo, the Michelin-starred spiegeltent gastro-varieté in Amsterdam.

photography by PETE JONES poster design by TORK

for Moby Dick continue, and the project is joined by associate director Rob Thirtle and lighting designer Phil Supple. Rehearsals in Chichester and Brighton. First preview at The Point Eastleigh in May. Show has its premiere at the Royal Theatre Northampton in September. Masterclass workshops in Brighton and London.

printing by ONEDIGITAL BRIGHTON

2009 Palazzo continues in Amsterdam, where preparations ‘The reigning monarchs of physical comedy’ ‘Go. See Them.

Laugh.’

The Stage

Melbourne Age

Spymonkey and Royal & Derngate Northampton present

Performed by Aitor Basauri, Petra Massey, Toby Park & Stephan Kreiss Director Jos Houben Associate Director Rob Thirtle Created by Aitor Basauri, Jos Houben, Stephan Kreiss, Petra Massey, Toby Park & Rob Thirtle Set Design Graeme Gilmour Costume & Prop Design Lucy Bradridge Lighting Design Phil Supple Original Music Tony Parks Choreography Barry Grantham, Janine Fletcher Company Stage Manager Nick Hill Technical Manager Andy Purves Production Manager Bob Holmes Company & Production Manager Tanya Peters Studio Photography CornĂŠ van der Stelt Graphic & Web Design Tork Assistant Stage Manager (at Royal & Derngate) Hannah Jagoe Tour Booking by Michael Brazier, Glynis Henderson Productions Press & Public Relations by Anna Arthur & Peter Leone, Arthur Leone PR tel: 020 7637 2994 | email: peter@arthurleone.com

‘Fecund’ lyrics by Petra Massey, music b y Neil Filby & Petra Massey

.

‘Bright Eyes’ lyrics & music Mike Batt, arranged & produced by Tony Parks we are hugely indebted to: The Royal & Derngate Community Choir Northampton (director of music: Gareth Fuller) Members of Southampton Philharmonic Choir (musical director: David Gibson) www.southamptonphil.org Theatre Royal Youth and Community Choir Bury-St-Edmunds www.theatreroyal.org New Wolsey Theatre Community Choir Ipswich (MC: Lynne Morely) www.wolseytheatre.co.uk Bristol Male Voice Choir (musical director: Steve Daykin) http://www.bristolmvc.org.uk Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus (musical director: Ignacio Jarquin) www.brightongmc.org Capriccio Singers Liverpool (musical director: Sue Acty) www.capriccio.org.uk The University of Warwick Chamber Choir (musical director: Paul Mcgrath) www.uwcc.co.uk The Really Promising Company Canterbury www. reallypromisingcompany.org.uk Phonetics Lancaster (musical director: Mark Melville) www.soundcloud.com/markmelville and all the choirs and singers who have indulged us with their beautiful voices music Soundtrack to John Huston’s ‘Moby Dick’ music by Philip Sainton, performed by Moscow Symphony Orchestra ‘Fleurette Africaine’ music by Duke Ellington/Max Roach/Charles Mingus ‘Sailing By’ music by Ronald Binge, performed by Fron Male Voice Choir ‘Junge Komm Bald Wieder’ music by Lotar Olias, lyrics by Walter Rothenburg, performed by Freddy Quinn ‘Sailing’ music & lyrics by Gavin Sutherland, performed by Orchester Anthony Ventura ‘Aqua Marina’ music by Barry Gray, performed by The Tornados ‘The Drunken Sailor’ music & lyrics traditional, performed by Swingle Singers with thanks to: All at Glynis Henderson Productions; Laurie, Martin and everyone at the Royal & Derngate; Flo Foster & Grimey, Lucy Twoshoes, Kathy Bourne, Joanna Park for putting us up and putting up with us; Katie Duffy,Vanessa Page, New England House Brighton, Yes/No Productions, National Youth Theatre, Frantic Assembly, Donna Close, Beth Burgess, Judith Hibberd, Alija Turlaja; and with special thanks to our most excellent board of Wise Guys (advisors to the Bunch-O-Clowns): Julian Boast, Mick Perrin, Kathy Bourne, Gill Marcus & Lisa Wolfe.

Royal & Derngate has assisted the making of Spymonkey’s Moby Dick by providing scenery, set painting, properties, costuming and stage management support, facilitated by Royal & Derngate in-house workshops and technical teams.

Created with financial support from the National Lottery through Grants For The Arts and Brighton and Hove City Council, and support in kind from The Showroom at Chichester University and The Point Eastleigh.

Spymonkey office Unit 7B Level 3 North, New England House, New England Street, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 4GH tel: +44 (0)1273 670282 | web: www.spymonkey.co.uk | email: info@spymonkey.co.uk

Spymonkey management and booking enquiries Michael Brazier at Glynis Henderson Productions, 69 Charlotte St, London W1T 4PJ tel: +44 (0)20 7580 9644 | web: www.ghmp.co.uk | email: michael@ghmp.co.uk

AITOR BASAURI (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 in Karl’s Kuhne Gassenchau’s Grand Paradis and Stau in Switzerland (1997 and 1998) In 1999 he headlined with KKG on tour with Circus Knie. 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 2000 he formed his own company Punto Fijo, based in Bilbao, and is working on a new show with director Cal McCrystal.

Performed in Zumanity – Another Side of Cirque du Soleil at the New York New York Hotel Casino, Las Vegas, 2003-05. Appeared in Bertold Brecht’s Senor Carrera’s Rifles at the Young Vic, directed by Paul Hunter (2007).

TV work includes Cirque Images’ 2003 series Solstrom for Bravo Cable Network. He teaches around the world, including regular work at the Philippe Gaulier School in Paris.

PETRA MASSEY (joint artistic director & performer) BA (Hons) in Performing Arts at Middlesex University. Trained with Philippe Gaulier and John Wright in London. She toured the world as a street performer and with her one-woman stage show Panic before joining Mamaloucos Circus as artist and director 1996-97. Worked with Swiss action theatre, Karl’s Kuhne Gassenchau (KKG) in 1996 for Grand Paradis, S.T.E.I.N.B.R.U.C.H (1997), and Stau in 1998. In 1999 she headlined with KKG on tour with Circus Knie. Performed in Zumanity – Another Side of Cirque du Soleil at the New York New York Hotel Casino, Las Vegas, 2003-05, and at the Barbican in Office Party Xmas 2007.

TV work has included Cirque Images’ series Solstrom (2003) for Bravo TV. Petra starred in comedy Sci Fi Hyperdrive, in series l & ll, 2006-07 as regular crew member “Sandstrom” the enhanced human for BBC2, BBC America and ABC. She recently filmed for ITV’s Headcases and Comedy Cuts, and Miranda Hart’s BBC series Miranda.

Petra is currently developing a forum theatre project with the charity Empuaan and Maasai youth for HIV/AIDS prevention among Maasai in Northern Tanzania. (see the Empuaan insert for more details)

STEPHAN KREISS (performer and uncompensated investor) Trained with Philippe Gaulier and Monika Pagneux and with Atelier International de l’Acteur (Paris 1987/88); studied drama and finished with equity degree (Vienna 1990/93). .

Theatre credits include, amongst others: Notfalls Belau and The Pool for YBY in Salzburg; Hello, We Must Be Going (The Marx Brothers) with Jos Houben and Johnny Hutch; Penny Dreadful for the Right Size (1993); Notre Dame de Paris, La Tulipe Noir and Tale of Two Cities for Theatre Sans Frontieres (all 1995-98).

Toured as Der Legendäre Lustige in Germany and Austria with his one-man-show (1998-2000).

Joined Spymonkey in 2000, but only after being ridiculoused for his nationality. Performed in Zumanity – Another Side of Cirque du Soleil at the New York New York Hotel Casino, Las Vegas, 2003-05, and most recently as Colin Chapman in the Jochen Rindt Opera for Company Lawine Torren (Salzburg Festival 20009).

TV appearances include BBC2 Hyperdrive and Cirque Images’ 2003 series Solstrom for Bravo Cable Network and various resurfacings on Austrian TV and Silverscreen. His latest project was co-writing, co-producing, co-directing a short film with a long story in Vienna named Cockblockers.

TOBY PARK (joint artistic director, musical director, performer) BA in Drama at Hull University. Trained at Fool Time Circus School, Bristol, and with Philippe Gaulier and Monika Pagneaux in Paris. From 199497 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, 1997), 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 Animo (1999) and Lifegame (1998-2000) including an off-Broadway run at Jane Street Theatre. Musical director and composer for: Guy Dartnell’s Would Say Something (1998); acro-dance-theatre Mimbre’s Sprung (2001), Trip-Tic (2003) and The Bridge (2007); sitespecific son-et-lumiere pieces with Graeme Gilmour at Kielder Water Northumberland (2006) and Forth & Clyde Canal Glasgow (2007).

Performed in Zumanity – Another Side of Cirque du Soleil at the New York New York Hotel Casino, Las Vegas, 2003-05.

TV work includes Cirque Images’ 2003 series Solstrom for Bravo Cable Network. Petra’s nemesis replicant in Hyperdrive and the acme of his career, a worried father in Casualty for BBC TV. music at www.spymonkey.co.uk/tobypark

Lester Zaccarini (performer & voice coach) trained in Guildford and Bahrain.

Lester founded the company Gottle-of-Gear in 1992 to produce political, passionate theatrical polemic. He curated and arranged multi-media club events, art shows and had a collection of short stories, Short, published by Mudslinger, the taste-making New York zine, in 2000. He choreographed aerial dance for The Royal Variety Show, The Nobel Prize Ceremonies, and Hermes fashion house. Lester was nominated for the Best Actor Award by The Stage for his performance in Two Wobbly Legs. His break came when he joined Spymonkey in 2006 for their production of Bless, as understudy for the controversial role of Our Lady of Lourdes, where he received rave reviews and some death threats! He has since been collaborating with Tony Parks, presenting a TV pilot called Living the Dream. Encouraged by Tony, Lester is currently studying for a PHD in Circus and Psychoanalysis at the Central School of Speech and Drama, London.

photo to come

photo to come

JOS HOUBEN (writer/director) Between 1984 and 1994 he was an original member of Theatre de Complicite during which time he co-created and performed in cult comedies More Bigger Snacks Now and A Minute Too Late which toured from the Donmar Warehouse in London across the globe, and won the coveted Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1986. Since autumn 2006 he has appeared in Peter Brook’s Beckett hommage Fragments, in Paris and world tour 2007/2008.

Writer and director with comedy troupe The Right Size, London (Olivier Awards for Best Entertainment 1999, and Best New Comedy 2002), including Stop Calling Me Vernon and Do You Come Here Often? Other significant collaborations include work with Andrew Dawson; Opera North; Gerard McBurney; Marcello Magni; and contemporary composer George Aperghis. He is a professor of the Ecole Internationale Jacques Lecoq in Paris, and teaches master classes throughout the world. His current show The Art Of Laughter tours the world. He won the Total Theatre Award for Significant Contribution in 2007. rob thirtle (associate director & dramaturg) As a performer, Rob has worked internationally with Trickster, MTP, the Right Size and Improbable; his TV and film work includes Space Precinct, Brum, Numberjacks, Return to Oz & The Phantom Menace. As assistant designer to Julian Crouch, Rob’s work includes Wolves in the Walls (Scottish National Theatre), Satyagraha (Improbable/ENO/Met), The Magic Flute (Welsh National Opera), Doctor Atomic (ENO/Met), and, most recently, the 125th Anniversary Gala of the New York Metropolitan Opera. He was also part of the creative team behind Improbable’s Sticky, a large-scale outdoor show involving fire, steel and sticky tape. Rob was the assistant director on Jerry Springer the Opera (National Theatre/West End), the closing ceremony of the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Round the Horne Revisited (National Tour), Interiors with Johnny Vegas for the Manchester Festival and Memories of a Monkey Boy in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

photo to come Lucy Bradridge (costume & prop design) studied English Literature at the University of Leeds and then Theatre Design at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Since 1998 her work as a set, props and costume designer has been mainly concerned with devised comedy. She has worked extensively with Spymonkey designing set, props and costume for Stiff, Cooped and Bless. Lucy has collaborated on numerous occasions with director Cal McCrystal. Design credits include AutoBoosh for the Mighty Boosh; clown costume design for Cirque du Soleil’s Vareki and Zumanity; Heroes for Company FZ; Moonjourney by Alice Lowe and numerous projects with Circus Space. Television credits include Orcadia, a Comedy Lab, and The Last Chancers, a comedy series both for Channel 4. Film credits include The Wild and Wycked World of Brian Jones; Out of Water and Queen Bee. She has also designed The Shakes music video for the single Liberty Jones and styled campaigns for Muller Lite, Johnson and Johnson and Hardy’s Wine.

Graeme Gilmour (stage design) is a designer, maker, sculptor, performer and puppeteer. His work includes Cultural Industry’s Shockheaded Peter (best design, Critics’ Circle Theatre Award 1998, nominated for 5 Oliviers in 2002, including best design), Improbable Theatre’s Animo, Coma, Spirit, and the open air spectacular Sticky, Midsummer Night’s Dream (ESC), Struwwelpeter and Sommernachtstraum at Deutsche Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Tim Crouch’s I Peaseblossom, and I Banquo. His large scale work as a designer/maker/director include the Forth & Clyde Canal reopening event, Divers with Same Sky, Brighton, The Palm House with Small Wonder, Get Lost with Dot Comedy, Illuminating Links and the 2009 Burns’ Night celebration event with UZ events, and Northumberland Lights with Phil Supple. Graeme has been working with Spymonkey since 2002 as a consultant, and was stage designer and performer for Spymonkey’s Bless. www.graemegilmour.co.uk

Phil Supple (lighting design) works in both conventional theatre and site specific environments. Frequently cloudy memories of his theatrical past include associate design credits on shows such as Shockheaded Peter, Thunderbirds Fab and The Play What I Wrote, and more recently design work on a variety of projects, indoors and out, including Sticky for Improbable Theatre; Iconic Burns for UZ events; Full Circle for The World Famous fireworkers; Northumberland Lights - Northumberland’s winter tourism events project; Half Life for NVA and the National Theatre of Scotland; several shows for Amici Dance Theatre; and Aisling’s Children, an outdoor theatrical spectacular on the esplanade at Edinburgh castle, produced for the Clan Gathering - the centrepiece of Scotland’s Homecoming 2009 celebrations. Moby Dick is Phil’s first collaboration with Spymonkey. www.lightrefreshment.co.uk

photo to come

ANDY PURVES (light & sound) Projects include: lighting and production management for Company FZ’s Horse; lighting designs for Circus Space/London Youth Circus; lighting for The Erpingham Camp on Brighton Pier for Brighton Festival, lighting for La Clique at The Hippodrome, London; lighting design for Frantic Assembly’s Stockholm (Sydney Theatre Company/UK tour) and associate lighting design/ re-lighting for Othello, Pool (No Water) and Dirty Wonderland; lighting for Ida Barr and Office Party at the Barbican Pit, London; production electrics for GDIF’s RUN!; lighting for Frankenstein at The Royal Theatre, Northampton; production electrics and re-lighting for The Wolves in the Walls and lighting for Home Inverness with the National Theatre of Scotland; lighting and technical design for Outré and Ren-Sa with Array. Andy holds an MA in lighting design and theatre making from Central School of Speech and Drama where he also tutors in lighting. He has been working regularly with Spymonkey since 2007, as technical manager on tours of Cooped, Stiff and Bless, and redesigned lighting for Cooped. www.andypurves.com nick hill (stage managment) Nick has had a varied career prior to his involvement with theatre, from bus driving to beach selling, ice cream man to building sites. His interest in staging theatre developed whilst working for Brighton Festival and Brighton Dome Theatre. After training in stage management he has gone on to work in various roles with Frantic Assembly, Headlong, National Youth Theatre GB, Kneehigh, Peepolykus, Hackney Empire,Really Useful, Delfont Mackintosh, Nimax Theatres, Television and Performance Showcases (Shepperton Studios). He has been sweating for Spymonkey since 2008, stage managing tours of Canada and Holland.

Tanya Peters (company and production manager) Since training at RADA she has stage, company and production managed for various companies in opera, dance and theatre including Soho Theatre, Hull Truck, Birmingham Stage, Meridian, ROH, Cork Opera House. She was company manager of Cultural Industry’s international tours and West End runs of Shockheaded Peter; production manager of Dot Comedy’s touring maze Get Lost, Improbable’s Panic, and Office Party and Ida Barr at the Barbican. As an arts festival production manager her work has included Islington International Festival, Cork Midsummer Festival and Brighton Festival. In 2009 Tanya was thrilled to be the Project Manager for Anish Kapoor’s Artistic Director residency of Brighton Festival including commissioned, site specific pieces. She is also Producer of the Festival’s Outdoor Programme. There have been many highlights so far, but none as outstanding as her work with Funky Flamingo; a club night project showcasing the power of performing arts, working alongside a talented steering group of young people with learning difficulties. Tanya has been working with Spymonkey since their 2007 production of Bless.

Glynis Henderson Productions Ltd (worldwide management) produces, general manages and represents a variety of theatre, music and dance productions. The company specialises in introducing unique and exciting new work to international audiences and international work to the UK. GHP is the original co-producer of Stomp with the show’s creators Yes/No Productions and the international promoter for Lost & Found Orchestra, the new show from the creators of Stomp.

The company also manages Ennio Marchetto, Spaghetti Western Orchestra and Rich Fulcher and has recently become the concert booker and promoter for classical pianist James Rhodes.

For full information and show/artiste websites go to www.ghmp.co.uk

Spymonkey follow a rich comic tradition which runs from Tommy Cooper through Morecombe and Wise to Reeves and Mortimer. They are clowns supreme, the high priests of foolery.’ Tom Morris, Associate

spymonkey company

Director, Royal National Theatre, London

photo: Mark Harrison

photo: Murdo MacLeod

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 photohas won them a deserved international reputation: at the time of writing they have performed in 20 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.’

‘Among the country’s brightest young companies’ The Times Spymonkey was founded by Toby Park, Petra Massey and Aitor Basauri in 1997. Whilst sharing a gypsy-caravan-cumdressing-room, working on a show with action-theatre photo: Bernhard Fuchs

company Karl’s Kühne Gassenshchau in Zurich, they came up with the idea of forming a company based on a shared rampant lack of respect for each others’ privacy and personal space. They approached comedy director Cal McCrystal to create with them a new physical comedy show, and a year later, at the end of 1998 ‘Stiff ’, a black comedy about undertakers, had its premiere at the Komedia Brighton and toured briefly in the UK and Switzerland. In 2000, needing to replace Paul Weilenmann as the fourth member, they put out the word that they were searching for ‘a funny German’.

Spontaneously, several friends recommended Stephan Kreiss.

Having reworked the show in the Spring of 2000, ‘Stiff ’ became one of the hits of the Edinburgh Fringe, and won plaudits and a Total Theatre Award. Since then ‘Stiff ’ has been performed in Swizerland, Austria, Hungary, Finland, Spain, France, USA, Canada, Mexico, Taiwan, Syria, Ireland, Romania and the Czech Republic and was included in the British Council Showcase of the best of British theatre in 2001.

‘Cooped’ was the second collaboration between Spymonkey, writer/director Cal McCrystal and designer Lucy Bradridge. It opened at the Komedia Brighton in July 2001 and confirmed the partnerphoto: Sean Dennie

ship as a formidable creative powerhouse.

In 2003 Spymonkey and director Cal McCrystal were invited by Cirque du Soleil to create and perform comedy numbers for ‘Zumanity - Another Side of Cirque du Soleil’, the adult burlesque cabaret for the New York-New York Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas.

Spymonkey’s surreal, inventive and irreverent style made them the uproarious highlight of the show, which played to half a million people during their two-year residency. In 2005 they took the decision to leave Zumanity in order to continue their own work, and in October 2005 created an extended version of Cooped for larger theatres. It has subsequently toured to Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Comedy Festival, Just For Laughs Montreal, Edinburgh Festival, the West End, Holland, Belgium, Finland, Greece and Switzerland. In 2007 they created ‘Bless’ with director Cal McCrystal and designers Lucy Bradridge and Graeme Gilmour, which toured Switzerland, UK and Canada, and was nominated for 3 Betty Awards during its run in Calgary Canada.

photos: Sean Dennie

Television credits include appearances in Melbourne Comedy Festival Gala 2006, ‘Comedy Cuts’ for ITV, alongside George Lopez, William Shatner and Ardal O’Hanlon at the Just For Laughs galas in Montreal 2007, ITV’s Comedy Cuts 2008. They starred in their own episode of Cirque Images ‘Solstrom’ series for Bravo Cable Network.

Spymonkey have appeared in various cabarets and galas including La Clique in Edinburgh and Montreal, and Miss Behave’s Variety Nighty at the Camden Roundhouse. In the winter of 2008/09 they hosted the Palazzo cabaret spiegeltent show in Amsterdam.

‘Groundbreaking and sharply brilliant, Spymonkey dance along the very boundary of artistic bravery. They take big risks in their work, and manage to be both true to a highly experimental process AND take their audience with them on that journey. Our loss is Las Vegas’s gain’ Julian Crouch, Improbable Theatre

photos: Andy Purves

WORKSHOPS FOR STUDENT AND PROFESSIONAL PERFORMERS In Spymonkey rehearsals and productions we are always looking for what makes us laugh, the thing which makes each of us uniquely, specially funny. We are interested mainly in finding each person’s supreme pleasure of being ridiculous in front of audience.

Spymonkey workshops are made up of various hand picked games which at first appear to be only hugely fun and entertaining. Later the group learns that these games are the basic tools and techniques that we apply to making an audience laugh, keeping our performance fresh and trying to surprise ourselves and our fellow performers. It is these practical sessions that will build up your confidence, by finding what makes an audience laugh about you, however small or silly.

As well as performing in the workshop it is vital to be an open and attentive audience too, to create a great group dynamic so that participants feel well supported. As an individual you learn so much from the other performers process witnessing the highs and lows of the work. Although the workshop is 90% fun it can also be challenging - but if you dare to go that extra mile the rewards will be your first steps towards a great performance.

Workshop teachers Aitor Basauri and Petra Massey have taught all over the world, including the Circus Space London, the Philippe Gaulier School Paris, and Cirque du Soleil Montreal.

Visit www.spymonkey.co.uk/workshops.htm for more details.

YOUR FUNNY BUSINESS - our specially designed courses for business and corporate groups, drawing on our extensive experience as workshop leaders for specifically business-oriented issues.

Great performances inspire everyone because the performers have learned how to:• • • • • •

Connect to their voice, body, and energy Connect to their belief, purpose, and passion Connect to their audience as individuals Be confident in the moment Be confident and natural in front of others Rise and respond to challenges with fun and optimism

To discover and connect your heart with your fun and creativity is to be in touch with very powerful forces and rich energies. These forces are who you are, at your best, as a leader and a human being.

This in turn gives you your unique voice and style.

AUTUMN 2009 MASTERCLASS now booking Suitable for students, professionals and non-professionals.

Please bring loose fitted clothing Mon 9 - Fri 13 November 2009 10.30am-5.30pm The Rag Factory, 16-18 Heneage Street, London E1 5LJ cost: £220 (£180 early bird booking and concessions) call +44 (0)1273 670282 or visit the Spymonkey website to book.

Petra Massey is a trustee of, and actively involved in, the charity:

Preventing HIV/AIDS and suffering among the Masai in East Africa

Fine food, wonderful ambience, and loyal supporters of Spymonkey!

118 COLLEGE ROAD, KENSAL RISE, LONDON NW10 5HD www.gracelandscafe.com