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Looking Back: 45 years of Premieres!
This August marks Cheek by Jowl’s 45th anniversary! Since its opening production of The Country Wife at the Edinburgh Festival in 1981, Declan, Nick, and Cheek by Jowl have created 47 productions in seven languages across the world. We consider ourselves lucky to still be creating theatre across Europe and internationally, with many more exciting productions still to come.
As part of this occasion, we thought it would be interesting to look back at all of Cheek by Jowl’s premieres: from our first production in 1981 (The Country Wife) to our first non-English production in 2000 (Boris Godunov) to our first collaborations in French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, and Bulgarian!
How many of these shows were you able to catch at the time?
| Production | Language | Premiere Date | Premiere Location |
| The Country Wife | English | 17 August 1981 | Edinburgh, St Columba by the Castle, UK |
| Othello | English | 22 September 1982 | King’s Lynn, Fermoy Centre, UK |
| Vanity Fair | English | 10 August 1983 | London, Clockhouse Community Centre, UK |
| Pericles | English | 10 August 1983 | London, Clockhouse Community Centre, UK |
| Andromache | English | 09 August 1984 | Buxton, Paxton Suite, UK |
| A Midsummer Night’s Dream | English | 19 February 1985 | Exeter, Northcott Theatre, UK |
| The Man of Mode | English | 27 September 1985 | Hemel Hempstead, Old Town Hall, UK |
| Twelfth Night | English | 25 July 1986 | Liverpool, Liverpool Playhouse, UK |
| The Cid | English | 16 September 1986 | King’s Lynn, Fermoy Centre, UK |
| Macbeth | English | 16 September 1987 | York, Theatre Royal, UK |
| A Family Affair | English | 23 February 1988 | Colchester, University Theatre, UK |
| The Tempest | English | 11 August 1988 | Taormina, Villa Communale, Italy |
| Philoctetes | English | 27 September 1988 | Taunton, Brewhouse Theatre, UK |
| The Doctor of Honour | English | 22 February 1989 | Birmingham, Midlands Arts Centre, UK |
| Lady Betty | English | 18 September 1989 | Bury St Edmunds, Theatre Royal, UK |
| Sara | English | 18 April 1990 | Montevideo, Millington Drake Theatre, Uruguay |
| Hamlet | English | 04 September 1990 | Bury St Edmunds, Theatre Royal, UK |
| As You Like It | English | 11 July 1991 | Farnham, Redgrave Theatre, UK |
| Don’t Fool With Love/The Blind Men | English | 17 February 1993 | Coventry, Warwick Arts Centre, UK |
| Measure for Measure | English | 16 February 1994 | Coventry, Warwick Arts Centre, UK |
| The Duchess of Malfi | English | 19 September 1995 | Bury St Edmunds, Theatre Royal, UK |
| Out Cry | English | 05 March 1997 | Cheltenham, Everyman Theatre, UK |
| Much Ado About Nothing | English | 12 February 1998 | Cheltenham, Everyman Theatre, UK |
| Boris Godunov | Russian | 15 June 2000 | Moscow, Moscow Arts Theatre, Russia |
| Homebody/Kabul | English | 05 July 2001 | New York, New York Theatre Workshop, USA |
| Twelfth Night | Russian | 24 November 2003 | Moscow, Pushkin Drama Theatre, Russia |
| Othello | English | 13 March 2004 | Lille, Théâtre l’Idéal, France |
| Three Sisters | Russian | 06 April 2005 | Sceaux, Les Gémeaux, Paris, France |
| The Changeling | English | 15 March 2006 | Sceaux, Les Gémeaux, Paris, France |
| Cymbeline | English | 27 February 2007 | Luxembourg, Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, Luxembourg |
| Andromaque | French | 04 October 2007 | Lille, Théâtre du Nord, France |
| Troilus and Cressida | English | 12 March 2008 | Sceaux, Les Gémeaux, Paris, France |
| Macbeth | English | 22 September 2009 | Namur, Théâtre de Namur, Belgium |
| The Tempest | Russian | 26 January 2011 | Sceaux, Les Gémeaux, Paris, France |
| Tis Pity She’s A Whore | English | 30 November 2011 | Sceaux, Les Gémeaux, Paris, France |
| Ubu Roi | French | 26 January 2013 | The Hague, Koninklijke Schouwburg, Netherlands |
| Measure for Measure | Russian | 06 December 2013 | Moscow, Pushkin Drama Theatre, Russia |
| The Winter’s Tale | English | 14 January 2016 | Sceaux, Les Gémeaux, Paris, France |
| Pericles, Prince de Tyr | French | 07 March 2018 | Sceaux, Les Gémeaux, Paris, France |
| The Revenger’s Tragedy | Italian | 10 October 2018 | Milan, Piccolo Teatro, Italy |
| The Knight of the Burning Pestle | Russian | 13 March 2019 | Moscow, Pushkin Drama Theatre, Russia |
| Oedipus | Romanian | 06 May 2022 | Craiova, Teatrul Naţional “Marin Sorescu”, Romania |
| Life is a Dream | Spanish | 14 October 2022 | Seville, Teatro Lope de Vega, Spain |
| Hamlet | Romanian | 22 February 2024 | Craiova, Teatrul Naţional “Marin Sorescu”, Romania |
| Medea | Bulgarian | 09 October 2024 | Sofia, “Ivan Vazov” National Theatre, Bulgaria |
| The Two Gentlemen of Verona | Spanish | 28 March 2025 | Aviles, Teatro Palacio Valdés, Spain |
| King Lear | Spanish | 10 June 2027 | Madrid, Teatro de la Abadia, Spain |