Drawing: Zoe Lyons

Posted on October 28, 2020 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of comedian Zoe Lyons in An Act of God at London's The Vaults Theatre

Award-winning British comedian Zoe Lyons was God for a short period last Winter… more on that later. Born in Wales, Zoe’s family moved to Ireland then to Surrey and on to Glasgow, where she got her first job in a jam factory. After graduating with a degree in Psychology from the University of York, Zoe’s comic career escalated after a stint on ITV’s reality game show SURVIVORS in 2001, later appearing on such popular TV favourites as MOCK THE WEEK, QI and a regular panellist on THE WRIGHT STUFF, among others.

Back to the Almighty. Zoe appeared as the supreme being in the European premiere of Emmy Award-winning writer David Javerbaum’s AN ACT OF GOD at London’s subterranean venue The Vaults, below Waterloo Station from late October last year until January. It originally opened on Broadway with Jim Parsons in the title role. As Zoe’s adjusted slogan said, ‘God is back… and she has a lot to say!’

I managed to get my sketch signed with a bit of divine intervention, when Zoe took a break between matinee and evening performances on the final Saturday of the season.

Drawing: Gwendoline Christie

Posted on October 20, 2020 by Mark Winter / Chicane

English actress Gwendoline Christie returned to the London stage in the Autumn of 2019 to play the Queens, Titania and Hippolyta, in Nicolas Hytner’s immersive production of Shakespeare’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM at the Bridge Theatre.

She previously played the Queen in the Barbican’s staging of the Bard’s CYMBELINE in 2007 and Mag Wildwood in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S at the Theatre Royal Haymarket two years later. In 2010 she was Lucifer in DR FAUSTUS at the Royal Exchange in Manchester. The 191cm (that’s 6′ 3″ in the old money) Gwendoline has portrayed dominate roles on both the small and large screens, playing Brianne of Tarth in HBO’s fantasy-drama series GAME OF THRONES and First Order storm trooper Captain Plasma in STAR WARS:THE FORCE AWAKENS (2015) and THE LAST JEDI (2017). She received her first Emmy nomination for the former in 2019.

Gwendoline kindly signed both my sketches at the Bridge in October 2019.

Drawing: John Reid

Posted on October 15, 2020 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of cricketer John Reid

Described as a ‘colossus of New Zealand cricket’, John Reid died this week aged 92.

Regarded as one of the games great all-rounders in the fifties and early sixties, John was New Zealand’s oldest surviving test player. He was a hard hitting batsman and brisk seam bowler, debuting for the national team at the age of 19 during the 1949 tour of England. He scored 3428 runs, including six test centuries at an average of 33.28 and taking 85 wickets in 58 test. John captained his country in 34 tests, including, most notably New Zealand’s first three test victories against the West Indies in 1956 and two in South Africa during the 1961-62 tour where John scored his highest test score of 142 in the Johannesburg Boxing Day test. After retiring he became a NZ selector, manager an an ICC referee.

In the 1990’s I drew a number of NZ cricketing legends for a Best NZ Test XI series of limited edition prints for a charity fundraiser, which John kindly signed.

RIP John.

Drawing: Justina Gringyte as Carmen

Posted on October 12, 2020 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of Justina Gringyte in Carmen

Lithuanian operatic mezzo-soprano and the 2015 International Opera Awards Young Singer of the Year, Justina Gringyte returned to the London Coliseum earlier this year to reprise the titular role in the English National Opera’s production of Georges Bizet’s CARMEN. The exotic and wilful Spanish gypsy girl is Justina’s signature role and considered one of the summits for a mezzo.

After initial studies at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, she continued her learning at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Italy’s Accademia Musicale Chigiana and at the National Opera Studio in London. Between 2011-2013, Justina was a member of the prestigious Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House. During the 2014/15 Opera season she played Maddalena in RIGOLETTO at the Royal Opera House and the Bolshoi Theatre and Hansel in HANSEL UND GRETEL for the Vilnius City Opera, but it was the role of Carmen that dominated that and the following season. She performed it for the ENO, staged at the London Coliseum, the Scottish Opera, the Lithuanian National Opera and the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre known as the ‘Siberian Coliseum.’ She also appeared in semi-staged performances in Moscow and St Petersburg.

The London and Scottish productions were radically different. The ENO’s was very contemporary, set in the 1970’s near the end of Franco’s regime, using the English translation with some edgy character breakdowns… and a few cars. The Scottish production was performed in its original French, set in 1825…. with a few tables. The one similarity: no big flamenco dancing scenes. Richard Bartley in his Spectator review described Justina’s “smokey voiced” Carmen as “terrific.” She also returned to the role for the Lithuanian National Opera from October 2017- May 2018 and again the following year.

Justina signed my sketch at the Coliseum during the final week, which completed its limited run on 27 February, before the coronavirus pandemic closed the West End.

Drawing: Jessica Hausner

Posted on October 7, 2020 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of Viennese director and screenwriter Jessica Hausner

Viennese director and screenwriter Jessica Hausner attended last year’s BFI London Film Festival to support her latest film LITTLE JOE. She has been described as one of the most inventive and surprising auteurs in the Austrian arthouse scene.

In her intro on Jessica for the BFI website, Carmen Grey acknowledges through the work of Michael Haneke and Ulrich Seidl that we have come to expect from Austrian cinema, a perverse delight in revealing the darker impulses underneath the veneer of civilised society. Carmen writes that Jessica “leans towards that tendency, but is less interested in limit-transgressing provocation than in nudging audiences into a zone of radical uncertainty. Hausner’s are female-centred films of ideas and philosophical experimentation.”

She gained international attention in 2001, when her first feature, LOVELY RITA, a portrait of a young girl confined by family constraints, was selected for the ‘Un Certain Regard’ section at the Cannes Film Festival. Translated as ‘From another angle’, it is the prestigious French festival’s official selection of 20 films with unusual styles and non-traditional stories.
Jessica’s 2019 feature LITTLE JOE has been described as a “floral Frankenstein horror.”
It was in the official selection for the Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, where English-American actor Emily Beecham won the Best Actress Award for her portrayal of Alice Woodward, a floral breeder and single mother who creates a unique plant she calls ‘Little Joe’, after her son.

The BFI hosted ‘The Cinema of Jessica Hausner Retrospective’ from 21-29 February this year which Jessica attended. She signed this sketch when she arrived to participate in an ‘In Conversation’ event on the opening day.

Drawing: Celine Sciamma

Posted on October 5, 2020 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of filmmaker Celine Sciamma

One of France’s most influential contemporary filmmakers, screenwriter and director Celine Sciamma is known for exploring the themes of gender fluidity and sexual identity among women in her work. She cites David Lynch, Chantal Akerman and the writing of Virginia Woolf as major influences. Since her debut feature, WATER LILLIES in 2007, Celine has written and directed four features and was responsible for the screenplay for three other feature productions among other writing credits.

She has won numerous accolades, including a Cesar Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI, directed by Claude Barras and based on Gilles Paris’ 2002 novel ‘Autobiographies d’une Courgette’. The film was nominated for an Academy and BAFTA Award for Best Animated Feature in 2017.

Celine’s latest film, the erotic love story of two women in love, PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE screened at last year’s London Film Festival, which Celine attended along with both leads Adele Haenel and Noemie Merlant. It was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, winning the Queer Palm and the Best Screenplay Award for Celine. The film was also nominated for a Golden Globe, BAFTA and nine Cesar Awards. She is a founding member of the French branch of the ‘5050 by 2020’ movement, a group of movie industry professionals advocating gender parity in film.

Celine attended a screening and Q & A of the film at the Curzon Soho cinema last October, where she signed my sketch.