Drawing: Paul Bettany in ‘The Collaboration’

Posted on December 28, 2022 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of Paul Bettany as Andy Warhol in The Collaboration at London's Young Vic Theatre

In February this year, British actor Paul Bettany returned to the theatre after an absence of 25 years, fourteen of them spent in Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise to play longtime international superstar Andy Warhol in Anthony McCarten‘s THE COLLABORATION at London’s Young Vic. It sees the Pop Art icon return to painting after a quarter of a century of parties, gossip and lucrative printmaking.

Billed as a ‘prize-fight between two cultural heavyweights’, the play is set in New York in the summer of 1984. Warhol and the art scene’s newest wunderkid, Jean-Michel Basquiat (played by Jeremy Pope) agree to work together on what may be the most talked about exhibition in the history of modern art. “There are also a couple of titanic lead performances… and Paul Bettany and Jeremy Pope really, really deliver… Bettany is a strange and riveting Warhol… he’s a fascinating creation”, wrote TimeOut’s theatre critic Andrzej Lukowski. After a successful run in London, the production has just opened on Broadway with the same leads and director Kwame Kwei-Armah at the Samuel J.Friedman Theater. All three are also central to a film version which is now in post production.

After dropping out of school, Paul lived in a small flat and earned money playing guitar as a busker on the London streets and working in a home for the elderly before enrolling in a three-year course at the Drama Centre London. He made his stage debut at the age of 19, playing Eric Birling in Stephen Daldry’s acclaimed West End revival of AN INSPECTOR CALLS at the Aldwych Theatre in 1993.

Six plays, including three for the Royal Shakespeare Company, 13 TV productions and 42 films later his career has be filled with many memorable highlights and accolades with nine wins from 19 award nominations. He received a BAFTA nom for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of surgeon and naturalist Stephen Maturinin in Peter Weir’s MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD (2003) and won the London Film Critic’s Award for Best British Actor and the Evening Standard Award for Best Actor. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe for his role as the posh android Vision in the TV miniseries WANDAVISION. He won the London Film Critics’ Circle Award in 2002 for his portrayal of Geoffrey Chaucer in THE KNIGHT’S TALE.

Paul signed my sketch in early March during the THE COLLABORATION’s six-week run at the Young Vic.

Drawing: Jeremy Pope in ‘The Collaboration’

Posted on December 21, 2022 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of Jeremy Pope in 'The Collaboration' at London's Young Vic Theatre

It’s been a very busy and rewarding last few years, in spite of the Covid pandemic, for Florida-born actor and singer Jeremy Pope. He made his Broadway debut in 2018 as Pharus Jonathan Young in the play CHOIR BOY, followed by his portrayal of Eddie Kendricks in the jukebox musical AIN’T TOO PROUD. Both his performances were recognised the following year, becoming only the sixth person to receive Tony Award nominations in two categories for separate performances during the same year. He also earned a 2020 Grammy nomination for the latter for ‘Best Musical Theater Album.’ In 2019 he landed a lead role in the Netflix miniseries HOLLYWOOD, playing aspiring screenwriter Archie Colman, for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. Last week he received a Golden Globe nomination for his role as Ellis French in the drama film THE INSPECTION.

This year Jeremy returned to the theatre, crossing the Atlantic to join Paul Bettany in the world premiere of Anthony McCarten‘s THE COLLABORATION at London’s Young Vic, which opened in February. Directed by Kwawe Kwei-Armah, it looks at the unique and rich friendship between two of the world’s most interesting artists; the waning Pop Art legend Andy Warhol (Paul) and the ‘King’ of Neo Expressionism, the Haitian/Puerto Rican enfant terrible and former street kid Jean-Michel Basquait (Jeremy), who was “churning out canvases for dizzying piles of cash.”

In his four-star review for the Evening Standard, Nick Curtis writes, “Paul Bettany and Jeremy Pope match each other in brilliance in the study of art, commerce and identity.” The Broadway transfer with both reprising their roles, just completed previews and opened this week at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater. Kwame is also directing with all three collaborating for the film adaption, which is currently in post-production. Jeremy signed my sketch during the successful run at the Young Vic.

Drawing: Anthony McCarten

Posted on December 14, 2022 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of writer Anthony McCarten

Continuing with my fellow Massey University alumi after my previous post with Shehan Karunatilaka, another writer with kiwi connections… well… screenwriter, novelist, playwright, journalist, film director and producer, Anthony McCarten also graced our Varsity’s hallowed halls. Born in New Plymouth on the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island, Anthony worked as a reporter for The Taranaki Herald for a couple of years before studying for an Arts Degree at both Massey and nearby Victoria. While there he attended Bill Manhire’s famous creative writing course. This was followed by a period of unemployment, a stint on the boards in a production of the Bard’s KING LEAR and writing, including two abandoned novels and some poetry, but a meeting with Stephen Sinclair in 1987 at a NZ Playwrights’ Workshop resulted in them writing LADIES NIGHT together in six days, which is now New Zealand’s most successful commercial play.

First performed at Auckland’s Mercury Theatre, it had several national sell-out tours in the UK and has been translated into sixteen languages. It continues to play worldwide. The French version at the Theatre Rive Gauche in Paris won the Moliere Award for stage comedy in 2001. Since 1984, fifteen of his plays have been performed, the latest, A BEAUTIFUL NOISE – THE NEIL DIAMOND MUSICAL opened at the Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway earlier this month, following a four-week run in June at the Emerson Colonial Theatre in Boston.

Anthony has written nine novels, translated into 14 languages, winning several accolades. His fourth, SHOW OF HANDS, was adapted into a movie directed by the author in 2008 and nominated for for Best Picture and Best Director at the New Zealand Film Awards. His 2017 work of historical non-fiction, DARKEST HOUR: HOW CHURCHILL BOUGHT US BACK FROM THE BRINK was turned into a critically acclaimed biopic with Gary Oldman in the lead role. DARKEST HOUR received 5 Academy Award nominations with Anthony given a nod for Best Picture as producer. He also collected two BAFTA noms for Best Film and Best British Film.

Since 1999 he has written nine screenplays, receiving nominations for four Oscars, eight BAFTAs and a Golden Globe. The 2014 biographical romantic drama THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING, detailing the life of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, which Anthony adapted from Jane Hawking’s 2007 memoir, TRAVELLING TO INFINITY: MY LIFE WITH STEPHEN was nominated for six Oscars. He was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture. It also received 10 BAFTA noms with Anthony winning two for his adapted script and Best British. BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY (2018) was nominated for the BAFTA’s Outstanding British Film and the following year THE TWO POPES garnered Anthony Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for his adapted screenplay. His latest screen project is an adaption of his 2022 play THE COLLABORATION, exploring the relationship between artists Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, which originated at London’s Young Vic earlier this year, featuring Paul Bettany and Jeremy Pope and directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah. The Broadway transfer is currently in previews at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, opening 20 December with Paul and Jeremy reprising their roles, also directed by Kwame. All three are also involved in the film adaptation.

As you can see, Anthony is one of the busiest people on the planet, but I managed to catch up with him at The Old Vic in February during the first week of THE COLLABORATION, where we acknowledged our Massey alumni status and he signed my portrait sketch.

Drawing: Shehan Karunatilaka, Booker Prize Winner 2022

Posted on December 12, 2022 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka

Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka’s second novel, THE SEVEN MOONS OF MAALI ALMEIDA was announced the winner of the 2022 Booker Prize – the most prestigious literary prize in the English-speaking world – at The Roundhouse in London on 17 October this year. Set against the backdrop of civil war, it follows the story of renegade war photographer Maali Almeida, tasked with solving his own murder.

The first draft was shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize under the title, DEVIL DANCE. It was subsequently published as CHATS WITH THE DEAD before being revised to “make it familiar to Western readers” during the two-year delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic and released by the independent British publishing house Sort of Books this year under THE SEVEN MOONS title.The Booker judges said that the novel “fizzes with energy, imagery and ideas against a broad, surreal view of the Sri Lankan civil wars. Slyly, angrily comic.” On his website Shehan is described as “writing about forgotten cricketers, drunk old men, war photographers, chatty ghosts, self-driving cars and time travelers. His stories are absurd and mostly true. He lives in Colombo with his wife, two kids, five guitars and thirty-two unfinished stories.”

Shehan grew up in the Sri Lankan capital and was educated in New Zealand, graduating from Massey University with a degree in English Literature against his family’s wish to study business administration.

His debut novel in 2010, CHINAMAN: THE LEGEND OF PRADEEP MATHEW won the Commonwealth Book Prize, the Gratiaen Prize and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. It was also adjudged the second greatest cricket book of all time by Wisden in 2019. telling the story of an alcoholic sports journalist’s quest to track down a missing Sri Lankan cricketer of the 1980’s. Shehan’s first manuscript THE PAINTER was shortlisted for the 2000 Gratiaen Prize, but was never published. He has also published three children’s books with more in the pipeline and another novel “that will hopefully not take ten years to finish.”

He has said that his influences are Kurt Vonnegut, William Goldman, Salman Rushdie, Michael Ondaatje, Agatha Christie, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Tom Robbins and “a few hundred other authors.”

Shehan also plays bass for the rock bands ‘Independent Square’, ‘Powercut Circus’ and ‘Brass Monkey Band’ and has written and spoken about his lifelong obsession with ‘The Police’.

Three days after Shehan won the Booker he appeared at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London’s Southbank Centre in AN EVENING WITH THE 2022 BOOKER PRIZE WINNER event as part of the London Literature Festival. When I met him at the aftermatch booksigning he immediately recognised my Kiwi accent so we immediately found a point of reference as fellow alumni of Massey University in Palmerston North on New Zealand’s North Island, and the city’s best student takeaway. NZ Stuff described him as a ‘Sri Lankan-Kiwi’ after his win and said that he is in the process of moving back to Aotearoa, something he mentioned to me. He then signed a copy of his book and my sketch.