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.

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!

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.