Attachment to email

THEATREWORLD INTERNET MAGAZINE REVIEW:-

published on our website:

http://members.aol.com/MouseUK/stage

Spymonkey's

'COOPED'.

Directed by Cal McCrystal. Designed by Lucy Bradridge

now playing at BAC Main House until June 9

Currently showing in BAC's main house is Spymonkey's 'Cooped', a wickedly
irreverent and side-splittingly entertaining send-up of the Gothic Romance
genre. Directed by Cal McCrystal, the piece has all the essential
ingredients for some Victorian-style scare-mongering: a spooky, tumbledown
country pile; a young, beautiful heroine; a Lurch-like butler and a
'devilishly handsome' hero. Plus - a more unusual, but hilarious, addition
to the proceedings - a Spanish soap-opera star portraying the family lawyer.
Intrigued? Read on.

At the outset of the show we are introduced to the players, each one of whom
is to portray a character who is in someway quirky or twisted. Our heroine,
Laura du Ley, flamboyantly played by the gutsy Petra Massey, is a foxy,
sixties-style chick decked out in a snazzy turquoise micro-dress, wrinkly
knee-length white boots and a platinum-blonde wig (so blonde in fact, that
she wouldn't be out of place in a Hitchcock movie). Very sexy. Hankies at
the ready, though, because she's orphaned and has come to Birchend, where
our story is set, to make a nice new life for herself as the master's
private secretary. The flaw to her character is her bizarre habit of
breaking into a disturbing shaking fit - each time provoking a generous dose
of slapstick comedy as the other members of the cast wrestle to help her.
(Heaven only knows how Massey manages this - very impressive.)

The male romantic lead, the appropriately aristocratically-named Forbes
Murdston, is stylishly played by Toby Park, who seems to have a particular
talent for knowing just how long to milk a gag. Also an orphan - these guys
really know how to pull your heart strings - he is investigating his family
tree and hence has enlisted the assistance of the lovely Du Ley. Dishy
(think footballer's square jaw and lustrous dark hair), blessed with an
attractive air of mystery, and loaded to boot, he seems like perfect husband
material - until his schizophrenic tendencies and his overfondness for
extra-large black stranglers' gloves come to light. Cue spooky music...

In the role as house butler is Stephan Kreiss, and it's clever casting. He
looks the part - he's tall, slightly stooping and you can almost spot the
cobwebs gathering on his shoulders. He also has a fittingly disdainful air,
which reflects how he clearly - and ironically - loathes receiving guests
into the house. But he has hidden depths - listen out for his marvellous
turn playing a trolley full of wine bottles.

It's hard to pick a star of the show, as all four actors are wonderful,
incredibly game for a laugh and clearly having a ball. Aitor Basauri,
however, is quite unbeatable as a D-list Spanish soap-star portraying
Murdston's lawyer. (He also does a treat of a turn as an exorcising bishop.)
His comic timing is excellent, his frantic ravings in Spanish hilarious and
his infectious sense of fun obvious. It's as if Peter Sellers had been born
in Seville, not Southsea.

And it's not just the cast that makes the show. The script, which is heavily
peppered with terrible but irrestistible puns, is quick paced and genuinely
funny - the kind of funny that makes you drop your guard and laugh, laugh,
laugh. Props are cleverly used - look out for the army of remote-control
pheasants and the shortest ladder in the world. In fact, any excuse is used
to pull off a few extra funny gags and show-off turns. Numerous surreal
dream-sequences and flashbacks are employed to make a mockery of stylistic
genres in addition to that of Gothic Romance, and specific films, groups of
society and notable figures are sent up too. Hitchcock, 'Crouching Tiger
Hidden Dragon', 'Greystoke', carefully choreographed Japanese fight movies,
Orthodox Judaism and the high-brow world of ballet are all subject to
Spymonkey's cutting wit.

I went to see the play on the first night, and the whole house was totally
reduced to uproarious laughter - something that bodes very well for the rest
of the run. Spymonkey's talent and naughty sense of fun come across with
real flair in this piece and they rightly received excellent praise for
their spell performing it at the Edinburgh Festival.

Spymonkey promise a 'carefully crafted brand of lunacy' and they deliver. I
defy you to maintain a straight face! Highly recommended.

21 May - 9 June 2002 (excluding Mondays and 4 June)
£10.75 (concessions £6.50). Tuesday: Pay what you can
Box Office: 020 7223 2223. www.bac.org.uk

Reviewed by Clare Peel for Theatreworld Internet Magazine