Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...Self-evidently, this is comedy with a macabre twist and the best moments of the show come when this is overtly explored and acknowledged — in fact, the best moment of the whole night comes when the entire company of actors turns against their leader, the excellent Toby Park, telling him they want him gone. It is a cool way to emulate what happened to Julius Caesar, he who failed to heed the will of the fickle populace."
Chicago Reader - Recommended
"...Toby (Toby Park) has had enough of "shallow buffoonery." He's decided to get serious and confront his "well-fed bourgeois" audience (us) with not one, not 20, but all 74 onstage deaths in Shakespeare's plays-from poor Matthew Gough, who buys it at the hands of a mob in Henry VI, Part II, to pretty much everybody in Hamlet. Of course, things don't go as planned. The three other members of Brit theater troupe Spymonkey can't take Toby's newfound earnestness, and, besides, they've got agendas of their own: Aitor Basauri wants to work with bubbles, Petra Massey wants to play Ophelia, and Stephan Kreiss wants to play with Petra."
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"...Wickedly staged by adaptor Tim Crouch, co-produced by the Brighton Festival and Royal & Derngate Northampton, developed at The Other Place at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and presented by Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Spymonkey's "tale of sound and fury signifying nothing" is a feast of folly with at least a laugh per death-74 or more. But who's counting? To paraphrase the Bard, nothing becomes this show like the leaving of it."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Who'd a thought that death could be so funny? Spymonkey, Britain's leading physical comedy company, that's who! "The Complete Deaths" is their silly, clever, slapstick, vulgar yet hysterically funny mash-up of all 74 onstage deaths in the plays of William Shakespeare. My friend Crista and I started laughing in about scene 1.5, and never stopped!"
Chicago Theatre Review - Recommended
"...Can there be a more fitting way to commemorate the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death than by cleverly recreating all the onstage demises from the Bard's canon of plays? Audiences should be warned, however, that this is a very adult production, with sexual acts depicted, frequent four-letter expletives bandied about, gory gross-outs and a good deal of full-frontal nudity. That said, this is an inventive, often ribald entertainment that's sure to evoke laughter and gasps of disbelief at just how far this talented British troupe of actors will go for a grin, a giggle or a guffaw.""
The Fourth Walsh - Highly Recommended
"...THE COMPLETE DEATHS is a good time. This big ole funeral party is a fatal who's who. The eulogy honors the theatrical ending for both the nameless, guard one and the unforgettable, Romeo and Juliet plus and 72 more. Spymonkey has brought its unique death lampoon to a Chicago for a limited engagement. Make plans to see them kill it soon."
Third Coast Review - Recommended
"...The ensemble of four–joint artistic directors, balding Bard proxy and Spaniard Aitor Basauri (who has trouble removing his Elizabethan collar) and spitfire Petra Massey, managing artistic director and probable lead Toby Park, and German Stephan Kreiss–run roughshod over the sparse stage, showing all of Shax’s 75 onstage deaths. (No Ophelia since she drowns only in monologue, much to Massey’s chagrin. “I want to do proper acting.” Mercutio and Lady MacB also don’t make the cut. Polonius is there, but stabbed through the ass rather than the arras.) It’s noted that Antony has the longest death/suicide, spanning 110 lines and a scene and a half."