Christmas Fund Raiser for Macmillian Cancer Support and our 2010 Tour

Cheekish Productions will be having a Christmas fund raiser which will help raise money for the Macmillan Cancer Support and to our tour of Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat and Eschara next year. There will be amazing homemade mince pies, an auctioning off of one of Joseph Loughborough's paintings which he is kindly donating (his new website is www.josephloughborough.co.uk in case you didn't know), some exclusive cheekish merchandise and more.

The event will also premier Grant Watsons's (director of the Pillowman) latest short film 'The Myth of Snowfall' which will then be followed by the 1940's classic 'It's a Wonderful Life'. Details are below:

The End of Christie in Love and a Great Year

Sorry it's been a while since my last post but I'm back with some news about our latest Cheekish antics. We have just finished our run of Christie in Love with Thrill Seeker and it really was a great production. Thank you all those who made it happen, particularly these folks:

Crew:
Dan Ayling - Director and Producer
Rhiannon Newman Brown - Design
Sally Ferguson - Lighting
Zoe Crosse and Joseph Loughborough - Artwork
Paul Bull - Sound

Cast:
Mike Aherne - Inspector
Peter Henderson - John Reginald Christie
Phillip Whiteman - Constable

Also a massive THANK YOU to the friends and family who came along and supported us. You guys are great!

Cheeksih recently attended The Guide Awards 2009 at the Kings Theatre, Southsea. The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh, our first production was up for Best Professional Production gong. In our category was Chicago, Enron, A Midsummer's Night Dream, Oklahoma and The Last Cigarette. These were some big productions, some of which have transferred to the West End and Broadway.

(Above) Phillip and Grant Watson (Director) on the...red carpet.

Unfortunately we didn't win. That honour went to Chicago and A Midsummer's Night Dream and a well deserved joint win it was. For us it was amazing to just be nominated, especially as The Pillowman was our first production.

(Left) Phillip in the Pillowman.

It has been an amazing year for us. We've managed to put up 4 plays this year: Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat by Mark Ravenhill and the world premier of Eschara by Phillip Whiteman at the Brighton Fringe Festival. Both plays received 5 star reviews. Contrarotulus by Phillip Whiteman, his second work as a playwright and which won the 2009 Daffodil Award for Best Overall Piece and of course the 5 star Christie in Love by Howard Brenton. The awards and amazing reviews are all testament to the outstanding direction of Dan Ayling.

A review and some photos from Christie

So Christie in Love has had its first week and it's been great. We've received a great review from The British Theatre Guide and are expecting more to follow.

We also have a new special offer for tickets. If you book online at ticket web and enter the promotional code: 'castoffer' and you can get your tickets for just £8. It's well worth it and you won't be disappointed. I was reading a little bit more about John Christie and, like all killers he collected trophies of his victims. In his case he cut off their pubic hair and kept it in little tin. There were several girls pubic hair found in the tin, however DNA sampling showed that none of the hair belonged to the victims in Chritie's garden, cupboard, washroom or his wife. Were there other victims? Who knows...

Christie Photos

So the preview nights are over and we had a great turn out for both nights (it helps that the tickets were £5). Man it's a great show. I really hope you all get to see it because if you liked The Pillowman and Eschara and Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat then I have no doubt you will love this. Here are few photos that visiting friend and photographer Patrick and I took over the past few days. Make sure you take some time to watch it. You can get tickets here and search for Christie in Love.

Pat, hard at work

John Reginald Christie

Christie, Miss Fuerst and the Constable

Christie in Love Taster

Here are a few shots from Christie in Love. Just a taster of things to come...

Mike Aherne as the Inspector

Peter Henderson as John Reginald Christie

Phillip Whiteman as the Constable

Christie in Love Premier and a Visiting Photographer

Cheekish Productions is happy to have a visiting photographer for Christie in Love. Patrick Thompson is a friend from Wales who likes to push camera buttons and make pretty pictures. Here he is trying to be all arty while reading Voltaire.

We went out last night to spread the Christie love (perhaps that's not the best way to describe it considering Christie's antics) and ended up in Gordon's Wine Bar in Embankment. He was getting all excited over the lighting and took the image below.

We're heading off to do a bit of flyering over in Angel before picking up Joe and heading to the final dress rehearsal to take some photos before tonight's premier. Hopefully we will see you all between the 27 Oct and 22 Nov when Christie in Love is showing at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre.

Click here for more info.

Contrarotulus at the 2009 Daffodil Awards!!

Well well, what an amazing day! It started off by getting lost in Milton Keynes and its many roundabouts. Jeeze that was horrible. But soon after we were rehearsing by some cat poo and a used condom before moving to a specially cordoned off section of Stantonbury Campus.

Then it was off to do some teching and we got a little taster of what was in store later!

Phillip Whiteman (standing) and Michael Andrew (sitting)

Sophie Hamedani

Gemma Stone

Nina Hatchwell

Giovanni Bienne

Joe and I snuck off for a quick skate at the famous Milton Keynes bus shelter while cast got on with some rehearsals and box making as Director Dan Ayling illustrates beautifully.

Then it was a case of watching all 20 plays. Some were not too bad, some were really good and a good portion stank. Contrarotulus was the 13th play to show and I crept a little closer to the stage to sneak a few cheeky photos in.

13th maybe unlucky for some but not for us!

We scooped the Best Overall Piece!

Contrarotulus ready to go

Hello Zero followers,

SO all the set and sound design is ready for Contrarotulus TOMORROW! Must remember to put the clocks back, we don't want any late cast...

Very exciting.

eee

Christie art work

I've just finished the program for Christie in Love. Joe, as usual, did a sterling job with the art and I have to share it with you guys.

10 Rillington Place - The Christie Residence

From the front of the house

To the back where Christie buried and hid some of his victims.

It is said that Christie used a human bone to prop open his gate in his garden. It went unnoticed by the Police while they were investigating Timothy Evans for the murder of his wife and daughter. Poor old Timmy was found guilty, thanks to Christie being a key eye witness, and hung but it was Christie who killed them. Thankfully Timothy received a post-humerus pardon and could enjoy the remainder of his death!

Christie in Love

Tuesday 27 October see's Cheekish Productions's next work, Christie in Love by Howard Brenton, which we are co-producing along with Thrill Seeker, open at The Lion and Unicorn Theatre, Kentish Town.

It's about serial killers John Reginald Christie, who was nicknames The Whispering Strangler. For those of you who don't know, John Christie killed at least 6 women, including his wife, and buried them in his back garden, the floorboards of his house, cupboard and wash room. He also liked his women cold, if you know what I mean (look up necrophilia if your still not sure).

This is going to be a great show that will be directed by Dan Ayling who worked with us on Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat and Eschara at The Brighton Fringe Festival this year. Both received 5 star reviews so you can expect the same from Christie. Click here to see the cast.

Isn't the artwork great?!! It's by Zoe Crosse.

Christie in Love will be running till the 22 November, showing Tuesday to Saturday at 9pm and Sunday at 5pm. There wont be any performances on the Monday's because the actors do need to get a little bit of rest. Make sure you come down because the rehearsals have been amazing and shouldn't be missed.

Call 08444 771 000 or click here for tickets.

Contrarotulus by Phillip Whiteman

We've had a very busy couple of weeks and it's all coming together this weekend. This Sunday (25 October) sees Phillip Whiteman's play, Contrarotulus, being performed for the first time at the Daffodil Theatre Awards at the Stantonbury Theatre in Milton Keynes, where all profits go to the Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Contrarotulus is up against 19 other finalists who will showcase their 5 minute plays after which the audience and panel of judges will vote for the Best New Writing, Best Overall Piece and Best Actor.

The play is being directed by Dan Ayling and will star Michael Andrew, Giovanni Bienne, Nina Hatchwell, Phillip Whiteman and Sophie Woods.

He's the artwork from Joseph Loughborough.

You can see more of Joe's work by clicking here.

Look out for how we get on at the Daffodil Awards on Monday.

Lets get Cheekish

Welcome to the Cheekish blog. Here you will can find out all about what we do, what we are doing and what we will be doing.

Cheekish Productions was set up by Artistic Director Phillip Whiteman in 2008. We push the boundaries of the theatrical form and have a strong passion for all the forms of art, incorporating it into our shows. Our work leans towards strong subject materials that is unorthodox and compelling.

Make sure you check out our website: www.cheekishproductions.com to find out a little more about us, what we do, what we have done and what is coming up.

If you wish to get Cheekish with us leave a comment or send us an email at: cheekishproductions@gmail.com