Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Aitor Basauri, Stephen Kreiss, Petra Massey, Toby Park.

Not every death in Shakespeare’s cannon of work was memorable, not every murder grizzly or foretold by the fortunate chance happening of witches and perhaps not as impressionable to the romantic painters as the death of Ophelia, but there were lots of them, there were hundreds and not all of them on stage and not all of them as well affected as suddenly being pursued by a bear across a wild and abandoned coast line.

Every death on stage, every ending, every action of final breath; you have to be mad, insane or just be part of the fabulous Spymonkey company to envisage it, for nobody else could or would surely ever have the fortitude or bravery attached to give such comedic reverence to the ways of murder, suicide, justice, war and fly swatting as Spymonkey.

A company to whom the public look forward to seeing perform almost with a guarded and covetous zeal, no wonder really when the art of the clown is as incredibly well placed and perfected as Spymonkey make it and in the action packed, outrageous and completely organised beautiful lunacy that is The Complete Deaths, the brilliant Aitor Basauri, Stephen Kreiss, Petra Massey and Toby Park capture Shakespeare’s gore, piercing observation and literary mass murderous intent with glee.

From the seemingly unannounced departures of some of the least favoured characters in the cannon to the big moments of Hamlet’s death at the hands of poison, Arthur’s suicide and the horror fest that is Titus Andronicus, Spymonkey covered them all and with passion, heartfelt comedy and with the smile of the Bard surely hanging down from across the centuries; even the black fly, ridiculed and snarled over and the epitome of the crushing inevitability of death and the symbolic nature of mortality is to be seen hovering over the proceedings.

Whilst it may well be Spymonkey’s most challenging work, it should also be seen as tremendously ambitious and one that is framed and worked upon stage to great effect, clowning at its very creative best. Only Spymonkey can do such work and make it so very beautifully funny.

Ian D. Hall