About Mark Winter / Chicane

Cartoonist. Artist. Illustrator. Oh, and autograph hunter.

Sketch: Sarah Lamb, Ballerina

Posted on January 29, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Boston-born American ballerina Sarah Lamb joined the Royal Ballet in August 2004 as a First Soloist and was promoted to Principal in 2006.

She is one of the Royal’s busiest performers due to her unusual versatility.

“To the classics, she brings a crystalline technique and an almost old-fashioned, theatrical glamour; in the more contemporary repertory, she’s audacious, clever and fast,” wrote Judith Mackrell in The Guardian.

Sarah kindly signed this sketch of her in the title role from the recent Royal Ballet production, ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, at the Royal Opera House in London.

Sketch: Chris Jarman – BFN in The Book of Mormon

Posted on January 28, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

chris-jarman

Gentle giant Chris Jarman is one of the nicest people in the theatre business. The complete opposite to his character, General Butt Fucking Naked in the hugely popular The Book of Mormon at London’s Prince of Wales Theatre.

Chris plays a Ugandan villages murderous despot who is obsessed with female circumcision, because his paranoia has led him to believe that all of the clitorises in the village will ‘power up’ and destroy him. I caught up with him at the stage door after Saturday’s matinee.

Chris added the initials BFN in reference to his character, not ‘Bye For Now’…. or maybe both!

Sketch: Stephen Ashfield, Elder McKinley in The Book of Mormon

Posted on January 27, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Scottish born actor Stephen Ashfield continues to delight London audiences as the camp Elder McKinley in the outrageous smash hit musical The Book of Mormon – the hottest ticket in town at the Prince of Wales Theatre.

“Elder McKinley is a really nice guy who has some issues,” Stephen said.

A career defining performance that earned him the Olivier Award after star turns as Emmett in Legally Blonde and Bob Gaudio in Jersey Boys. Stephen won Best Supporting Actor in a musical at the WhatsOnStage Theatregoers’ Choice Awards for both Mormon and Jersey Boys.

Not only did Stephen sign the sketch, I also got his family’s approval at the stage door after Saturday’s matinée performance.

Sketch: Bridget Christie at the Soho Theatre

Posted on January 26, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Award winning British comic Bridget Christie is popular – very popular… so popular in fact that her latest show An Ungrateful Woman at London’s Soho Theatre was completely sold out. It’s a common theme for all Bridget’s performances wherever she goes, but she will be back at the Soho for five nights in early March, so get in now!

Her accolades are numerous, including the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Show for A Bic For Her which also won the South Bank’s Sky Arts Award for Best Comedy and the top gong at the 2014 Chortle Awards. It also became the top selling comedy show at the Soho. Her own Radio 4 Bridget Christie Minds The Gap won the prestigious Rose D’or Award for Best Radio Comedy and the Chortle for good measure.

Catching up with Bridget is just as tough as getting a ticket for her shows! I drew this quick sketch let year and have missed her on a number of occasions, so I was determined to get Bridget during her latest run at the Soho. After the show I positioned myself between the stairs from which the audience and the talent leave the downstairs stage and the bar. Bingo!

Sketch: Adam James in Bull at The Young Vic Theatre

Posted on January 24, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Adam James reprises his role as the silkily offensive Tony in Mike Bartlett’s 55 minute four-hander Bull in the Maria space at the Young Vic Theatre. His character ruthlessly gangs up with Isobel (Eleanor Matsuura) on Thomas (Sam Troughton) to ensure Thomas is chosen by their older boss (Neil Stuke) for the chop, west in an unspecified office setting.

It was inspired when the playwright watched a bullfight in Mexico, one of the last surviving examples of ritual public slaughter. “To see something you really disapprove of, but it activates something primal and unsanitised,” he said. Mike won the 2013 National Theatre Award for Best New Play.

Cast members Adam, Eleanor and Sam originated their roles at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre in 2013, transferring for a run off-Broadway in New York in April, before making the London premiere this year.

Bull continues at the Young Vic until 14 Feb.

Sketch: Eleanor Matsuura in Bull at The Young Vic

Posted on January 23, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Tokyo-born and London raised actress Eleanor Matsuura is currently appearing as the determined Isobel in Clare Lizzimore’s riveting production of Mike Bartlett’s razor-sharp Bull at the Young Vic in London.

The play looks at the fine line between office politics and playground bullying as three employees fight to keep their jobs in a corporate wrestling ring.

It’s nasty, it’s brutish, it’s short – a 55 minute exercise that provides catharsis for theatregoers who want to purge the day’s tensions by watching a metaphoric version of what may be happening during regular office hours.

I drew this montage of Eleanor including her role in Enron at the Noel Coward Theatre, which she signed for me after two rounds in the ‘ring’ (a matinee and evening performance) on Wednesday.

Sketch: Lucy Beaumont – We Can Twerk It Out at the Soho Theatre

Posted on January 22, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Fresh from her nomination for the top award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the irresistible Lucy Beaumont returned to London’s Soho Theatre this week for a three night stint with her show WE CAN TWERK IT OUT.

Lucy’s unique blend of surreal, off beat humour relating to her observations of the strange working class culture in her native Hull has won her an increasing number of fans, the BBC New Comedy Award and a starring role in BBC 3’s Live at the Electric.

I originally drew this sketch in October 2014, when Lucy debuted the show, but missed getting her to graph it. With six different shows on it’s three stages during the course of the evening, the Soho Theatre can be a lot like the Tube during rush hour and often takes a bit of navigating to find people. But, this time I managed to catch up with her in the crowed bar after her final performance and she was more than happy to inscribe this sketch.

Sketch: Alison Moyet and Dawn French in Smaller

Posted on January 21, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

One of Britain’s best loved actresses and comediennes Dawn French and 80’s pop star Alison Moyet appeared together in the West End during the middle of 2006 in the production of Smaller at the Lyric Theatre in Shaftesbury Ave.

I didn’t, as usual have much time to do a sketch, but managed this ‘quickie’ which was based on the show’s publicity material. It is the literal ‘on the spot 5 minute scribble’ with a black biro and a bleeding…well leaking, but it was red, so bleeding red fine liner for the inscription. It eventually bled everywhere and I needed to fix the image with white out. As I didn’t want them to sign an image covered in white out, I took a photocopy of the drawing. Hence the red inscription is now black.

Although I managed to capture the likeness of the two, I wasn’t particularly happy with it, but Dawn and Alison were (I think), which is all that counts.

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.