You would be hard-pressed to find a bad review about a Spymonkey show. The Brighton-based comedy theatre group wowed audiences and critics alike at the Edinburgh Festival, with their blend of surreal and slapstick-humour, in Stiff (2000) and Cooped (2001).
But despite the company’s success, plans to create a third show this year fell through after the Arts Council of England (ACE) refused their application for funding. Instead, Spymonkey are about to sign a contract with Canadian circus outfit, Cirque du Soleil, which will see the group head across the Atlantic in 2003 for a two-year stint in Las Vegas.
Spymonkey member Toby Park, although excited about the opportunities the new collaboration offers, is disappointed the company is unable to build on its previous success in the UK and internationally, with a new show. The Arts Council’s decision, he says, came as bit of a shock.
‘The reasons they [ACE] gave [for refusing our application] were a bit disappointing. They said the work didn’t have the intellectual content that their policies require… which is a shame, because it means they don’t “get” what we’re doing… They don’t understand our work has a rigorous philosophical and intellectual background.’
Established in 1997, by performers Park, Petra Massey, Aitor Basauri and Stephan Kreiss – from the UK, Germany and Spain – the company joined creative forces with director Cal McCrystal in 1999, to devise the funeral spoof, Stiff – Undertaking Undertaking. The show went on to win a Total Theatre Award at the 2000 Edinburgh Festival, and was included in the British Council Showcase of the best of British theatre the following year, touring Europe and the USA. McCrystal and Spymonkey continued to collaborate, creating the second show, Cooped, which received ACE funding for around 30 per cent of the show’s budget.
Park suspects the company’s popularity may have spelt the death of funding support, suggesting the venture may have come to be viewed commercially – a perception Park challenges.
‘If something is enjoyable, does that make it a “commercial” product? I would say not. We continue to be in debt, there is no way we could continue to do the touring work we do without some kind of support.
‘In a sense, it was the icing on the cake which made the Cirque du Soleil decision so much easier,’ he concedes.
Now, facing the prospect of going down the commercial route, Park is questioning whether it’s such a bad thing. ‘If we’re going down the commercial road, it looks like a good choice to make’, he affirms.
It was through McCrystal that the opportunity to base Spymonkey in a Cirque de Soleil show came about. He created the clown routines for Cirque’s 2002 touring show, Varekai, and returns as the director of clowns and characters for the new Las Vegas production. The Spymonkey team will return to Cirque du Soleil’s Montreal base – where they worked on an episode for a cable television series in December 2002 – in March, for three months prior to the new show opening in Las Vegas on July 31. At this stage, discussions suggest the show will centre around the Spymonkey characters.
However, the move marks a drastic departure from the company’s humble infrastructure, not to mention the complexities of relocating – with families – to the States for two years. The group will also go from playing to relatively intimate audiences to Las Vegas’ 1,300-seat space at the New York New York Hotel, currently under construction.
But, given the opportunity, and if circumstances were different, would Park have preferred to have stayed in the UK to produce Spymonkey’s third show?
‘Definitely,’ he replies, without hesitation. ‘Whether we would have been involved in the Cirque du Soleil show after that, that would have been the choice. It’s a shame, because the audiences in this country are getting fewer and fewer; people are getting less and less used to going to the theatre. And I have to say, I think it’s because the quality of work is really poor. That has got to be partly the fault of the sort of work that gets funded. A lot of audiences come to see our work and say, “It’s the best work I’ve seen in ages” or “I thought I didn’t like theatre because I’ve seen so much which is rubbish” – and that’s not a good situation.’
Spymonkey is performing a double-bill of ‘Stiff’ and ‘Cooped’ in a one-off show at the London International Mime Festival, January 20, 7pm/9pm. Box Office: 020 7960 4242, tickets £12/£9 or £16/£12 for both shows.
For more information, see www.mimefest.co.uk or, for further details about the company, visit www.spymonkey.org
