Sketch: Anna Maxwell Martin in King Lear at The National Theatre

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Sam Mendes astonishing and absorbing production of King Lear at London’s National Theatre last summer included Anna Maxwell Martin playing the mad King’s eldest daughter with Simon Russell Beale in title role.

Lloyd Evans in The Spectator summed up the critics’ reviews, “There are outstanding performances from Anna Maxwell Martin, whose Regan is a hysterical sex freak turned on by torture.”

Anna has won two BAFTA awards, the first for her portrayal of Esther Summerson, the central character in the 2005 BBC adaption of Charles Dicken’s Bleak House. Her second was for playing ‘N’, a long-term mentally ill patient in Poppy Shakespeare three years later.

She was also nominated in 2011 for her role as Sarah Burton in South Riding.

Sketch: Ray Winstone and John Hurt in 44 Inch Chest

Posted on January 19, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Emmy award winning British ‘hard man’ actor Ray Winstone headed the cast of the crime drama 44 Inch Chest as car salesman Colin Diamond alongside recently knighted Sir John Hurt, playing the crotchety and bigoted Old Man Peanut – a role that won him a Cordon Film Critics’ Circle Best British Supporting Actor nomination.

The film had its premiere screening at the BFI London Film Festival in October 2009, before a UK release in January 2010. Ray and Sir John signed this sketch after a preview and Q+A at the BFI in January 2010.

Sketch: Adele Anderson, Dillie Keane and Liza Pulman in Fascinating Aida: Charm Offensive

Posted on January 17, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

The infamous and thrice Olivier nominated British comedy singing and satirical cabaret act Fascinating Aida, namely Dillie Keane, Adele Anderson and Liza Pulman has been in the business for over 30 years. Founded by Dillie along with Marilyn Cutts and Lizzie Richardson, Fascinating Aida started in a West End wine bar in 1983. Over the years the troupe has varied frequently, but the central two have been Adele Anderson who joined in 1984 and Dillie. Liza joined in 2004.

The late, acclaimed film director Ken Russell reviewed on of their shows in The Times and said that watching them made him feel he had “died and gone to heaven” and that the trio were “impossibly good”.

Dillie, Liza and Adele signed my sketch at the Southbank Centre in London last week where they were performing Charm Offensive as part of their national tour.

Sketch: Sofie Gråbøl in the James Plays, The National Theatre

Posted on January 16, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

BAFTA award winning Danish actress Sofie Gråbøl joined the ensemble cast of 20 to star as Queen Margaret of Denmark, the wife of James III in her first stage role in English.

James I, II and III are three new plays about the 15th century Scottish Kings by acclaimed playwright Rona Munro. They debuted at last years Edinburgh International Festival before transferring to London’s National Theatre. Critics were full of praise for Sofie’s performance.

Henry Hutchings said in The Telegraph, “she lit up the final part of the trilogy… with a commanding and witty portrayal of the King’s wife.”

Sofie signed my sketch at the BFI in London where she took part in a Q&A after the screening of the first episode of British TV series Fortitude.

Sketch: Antony Sher in Henry IV parts 1 and 2 at the Barbican Centre

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

The Guardian’s esteemed critic Michael Billington writes that the Royal Shakespeare Company’s current production of the Bard’s two Henry plays at London’s Barbican Centre contains a ‘major, magnificent and magnetic performance from Antony Sher as Falstaff, the comic sack-soaked carouser, coward and companion to Price Hal. It is something we have come to expect from an actor who never gives any role less than his all.

Winner of two Laurence Olivier Awards in 1997 for his portrayal of British painter Stanley Spencer in Stanley and in 1985 for his towering break-through performance as the title character in Richard III. In the latter, Sir Antony propelled himself around the stage on two giant crutches (as a result of his own injury,adding authenticity to his portrayal) which Billington rates along with Olivier’s 1955 film version as the best he has seen. It was a performance that ‘still haunts me’, he said.

Gregory Doran’s Henry, Parts I & II -‘A sublime blend of fathomless gloom and mad merriment’ continues at the Barbican until 24 January.

Drawing: Absent Friends at the Harold Pinter Theatre

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

A superb revival of Alan Ayckbourne’s Absent Friends, a comedy about bereavement and the death of love was staged at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London during the spring of 2012. Directed by Jeremy Herrin, the critically-acclaimed production had a stellar cast in alphabetical order, David Armand, Elizabeth Berrington, Katherine Parkinson, Steffan Rhodri, Reece Sheersmith and Kara Tointon – all of whom signed my sketch. Usually with larger casts it takes a few visits to the stage door to complete the set, but on this occasion the ‘graph god was smiling and as they all arrived for a saturday matinée on a sunny mid-april afternoon, one at a time in perfect procession, my mission was accomplished.

Sketch: Indira Varma

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Indira Varma

I’ve drawn British actress Indira Varma a couple of times as her stage characters. This is a simple portrait of ‘her as herself’, so-to-speak. I sketched the Game of Thrones star and she signed while she was playing Miss Cutts in Harold Pinter’s tragicomedy Hothouse at the Trafalgar Studios in London, in June 2013,

Indira currently leads the cast of the Hampstead Theatre’s production of Tiger Country until 17 January.

Sketch: Javed Miandad

Posted on January 12, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Cricketer Javed Miandad is the greatest batsman Pakistan has ever produced, playing for his country from 1976-1996. Not only is he a national hero, but one of the world’s most ebullient sporting personalities.

In 124 test matches Javed scored 8,832 runs with a batting average of 52.57, including 23 centuries with a top score of 280 not out against India in the second test in Hyderabad in the 1982-83 series. Captain Imran Khan declared the innings, stopping him from possibly breaking the individual Test record of Sir Garfield Sobers.

Javed also played 233 One Day Internationals (ODIs) scoring 7,381 runs with 8 centuries and 50 half centuries. In fact he holds the record for the maximum number of consecutive half centuries in ODIs .

In his debut Test against New Zealand in Lahore in 1976 he became the youngest batsman to score a century on debut at the age of 19 yard and 119 days. I the third test he scored 206 runs, breaking George Headley’s 47 year recored, becoming the youngest player to score a double century.

Javed signed this sketch when he toured New Zealand in the 1988-89 after scoring 271 in the third test at Eden Park in Auckland.

Sketch: The late, great Johnny Dankworth

Posted on January 10, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

I had the privilege of meeting British musical legend Johnny Dankworth and his wife Cleo Laine when they visited my hometown of Invercargill in southern New Zealand in 1994. I drew this black biro sketch, which he really liked, and he happily signed it for me. I gave him the original.

Knighted in 2006, Sir John Phillip William Dankworth was considered a pioneer of modern jazz and leading composer of film music. A superb instrumentalist, Johnny was one of the first British musicians to witness and then to explore the new avant-garde style of jazz, bebop, that emerged from New York after the Second World War.

He established The Stables at Wavendon, a charity that has provided education and opportunity for generations of young musicians. He also instigated the Jazz Course at the Royal Academy of Music, an area of study common in such institutions now, but highly controversial in classical circles at the time. As Johnny put it, “to say that jazz was divided about the validity and desirability of bebop would be seriously understating the case. It would be like saying that Americans were a tiny bit cross with the Japanese after Pearl Harbour”.

Sir John passed away in 2010 aged 82. His final appearance on the stage was a solo performance for the London Jazz Festival at the Royal Albert Hall in December 2009, playing his sax form a wheelchair.