Viva Brighton Issue #39 May 2016

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THEATRE .................................... The Complete Deaths A Shakespearian bloodbath Spare a thought for Toby Parks who so far this year has watched his colleagues get stabbed, poisoned, drowned, blinded, smothered, beheaded, bitten by snakes and baked in pies, often all in the same day. It’s been draining, he admits. But such is one’s lot when one is part of a physical comedy group making a foolhardy attempt to crowbar all 74 of Shakespeare’s death scenes into a single Brighton Festival show. The Complete Deaths is probably Spymonkey’s most ambitious work to date – and this is a group who have performed Herman Melville’s epic Moby Dick. So many characters die in Titus Andronicus alone that one website created a downloadable ‘death clock’ to help audiences keep track. There are around 25 untimely demises in a single Henry VI play: “A lot of those are characters no one’s really heard of though, so we crack through them quite quickly.” Then there are the ‘big production numbers’ – the Romeo & Juliets, the Hamlets, Cleopatra and her asp. The challenge hasn’t just been in covering all the deaths but in keeping them interesting. “One of our earliest discoveries in doing this show is that it quickly gets very boring watching people get stabbed and falling over again and again,” says Parks, who performs with and composes for the acclaimed Brighton-based five-piece. So that isn’t quite what happens. Instead deaths are reimagined as, to use Parks’ wonderfully evocative phrases, ‘a Butoh-inspired medley of stabbings’, ‘a Jacques Tati-style dumbshow set in a pie shop’ and ‘Pyramus and Thisbe as filmed by Ingmar Bergman.’ When I ask if there’s a scene with which Spymonkey has taken particular liberty, Parks is at a loss to pick just one. “It’s very good for us as clowns to work with characters and situations that everyone is familiar with. The stronger and clearer the situation, the more fun we can have in subverting it.” The audacity of Spymonkey’s undertaking has not gone unnoted. In a preview, the Telegraph called the as-yet-unperformed show “ultimately philistine” and protested that poor, innocent (only slightly bloodthirsty) Shakespeare “does not deserve this monstering”. And in the 400th anniversary of his death too! One can only hope the writer didn’t see Spymonkey’s 2012 show Oedipussy, which gave Homer’s eye-gouging Greek tragedy a loud, lewd, James Bond-style makeover. But Parks does not fear the angry academics. As he sees it, Spymonkey’s backs are covered by the involvement of experimental theatre-maker Tim Crouch, who adapted and directs The Complete Deaths. Crouch, he points out, is not only a renowned scholar of Shakespeare (see his one-man touring show I, Malvolio) but a bona fide ‘art bastard’ to boot. “We’re basically a bunch of idiots whereas Tim is a highly respected figure in avant-garde theatre circles. Tim is taking care of the erudition, we’re taking care of the laughs. Between us, we aim to create a show that is sublimely ridiculous.” Nione Meakin Theatre Royal Brighton, May 11th–15th. Brighton Festival, brightonfestival.org ....61....
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vivabrighton Issue 39. May 2016 EDI
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CONTENTS ..........................
Page 7 and 8:
MARKET LEADERS FOR SCOTTISH ART Ent
Page 9 and 10: JONNY HANNAH ......................
Page 11: BITS AND BOBS .....................
Page 19 and 20: BITS AND BOBS .....................
Page 21 and 22: BITS AND BOBS .....................
Page 26 and 27: experience the extraordinary at the
Page 28 and 29: PHOTOGRAPHY .......................
Page 32 and 33: Quality Country Furniture & Accesso
Page 35 and 36: COLUMN ............................
Page 37 and 38: COLUMN ............................
Page 39 and 40: COLUMN ............................
Page 41: INTERVIEW .........................
Page 45 and 46: THEATRE ...........................
Page 49 and 50: ORAL HISTORY ......................
Page 51 and 52: THEATRE ...........................
Page 53 and 54: AUDIO .............................
Page 55: LITERATURE ........................
Page 59: CINEMA ............................
Page 65 and 66: DANCE .............................
Page 67 and 68: LITERATURE ........................
Page 69 and 70: CLASSICAL MUSIC ...................
Page 71 and 72: LITERATURE ........................
Page 73 and 74: CINEMA ............................
Page 75 and 76: MUSIC .............................
Page 77 and 78: DESIGN ............................
Page 79 and 80: ART ...............................
Page 81 and 82: ART ...............................
Page 83: ART ...............................
Page 87: Summer 2016 festival round-up Love
Page 90 and 91: THE WAY WE WORK Beth O’Leary, Sen
Page 92 and 93: Dog Day Care Dog Hotel Hydrotherapy
Page 94 and 95: IMAGINATION It’s what sets us apa
Page 96 and 97: SATURDAY 25 JUNE from 11am - 8PM &
Page 99 and 100: FOOD REVIEW .......................
Page 101 and 102: FOOD REVIEW .......................
Page 103 and 104: WE TRY... .........................
Page 105 and 106: BRICKS AND MORTAR .................
Page 108: 7-29 May 2016 Our city streets come
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Viva Brighton Issue #39 May 2016

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