About Mark Winter / Chicane

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

Drawing: Rupert Gould

Posted on November 7, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Rupert Goold

The old adage, ‘if you want something done, give it to a busy person,’ certainly applies to pioneering English theatre director Rupert Goold. The artistic director of London’s Almeida Theatre and associate director at the Royal Shakespeare Company had two hit shows open weeks apart on the West End. After premiering at the Almeida, Mike Bartlett’s controversial play King Charles III transferred to the Wyndham’s Theatre on Charring Cross Road. It confronts the difficult question of what will happen when the Queen dies and a possible constitutional crisis ensues.

Rupert also directs the new musical Made in Dagenham with Gemma Arterton leading a feisty feminist strike force at the Ford auto factory in the east London suburbs. It’s the stage version of the popular feel good 2010 movie and opened on Guy Fawkes night this week.

As is custom, my wife and I celebrated our wedding anniversary with a slice of theatre. The precedent is a Shakespeare play, but this year for a slight deviation we went and saw King Charles III, which pays homage to the Bard, written in a blank verse style. I did this sketch of Rupert winning his Olivier a while back. He won the 2008 award for Best Director for the acclaimed Minerva Studio staging of Macbeth with Patrick Stewart in the title role.

It just so happened I had it in my bag that night – the same evening Made in Dagenham had its press night. Another deviation as we strolled to the train station, past the Adelphi Theatre stage door, where only minutes later the said director appeared with a large grin, indicating a successful opening (the show, not his mouth). A good time to get my sketch signed, which he was more than happy to do.

I immediately congratulated him on Charles III, which in hindsight seemed an odd thing to say at the premiere of his other show. That’s what happens when you’re the busiest director in town!

Drawing: Chef James Martin, Saturday Kitchen

Posted on November 6, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Whenever I can, I get my culinary kicks watching BBC’s Saturday Kitchen, either live or the ‘Best Bites’ – a selection of the best bits of the show hosted by popular TV chef James Martin. With 3.5million watching, I’m not alone, but I’m probably the only one to have my original 4B pencil sketch signed by him.

Drawing: ‘Doc’ Martin Clunes

Posted on November 5, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Martin Clunes plays one of my favourite TV characters in Doc Martin, the successful vascular surgeon who develops haemophobia (fear of blood) forcing him to stop practicing surgery. He obtains a GP position in the sleepy Cornish village of Portwenn.

He won a BAFTA TV award playing Gary Strang in the British sitcom Men Behaving Badly alongside Neil Morrissey who played Tony Smart, Leslie Ash and Caroline Quentin.

The beer-swilling, burping, foul-mouthed house mates Tony and Gary reunited for the first time in fifteen years this month as part of a night to raise funds for testicular cancer research in a one off comedy skit “Feeling Nuts”.

He was a really nice guy to meet and happily signed my sketch after the London premiere of Nativity 3: Dude Where’s My Donkey?!, at the Vue in Leicester Square on Sunday. I asked Martin what he was working on and he said “Arthur and George,” a three part TV adaption of Julian Barnes novel of the same title, based on an intriguing series of genuine events in the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the celebrated novelist and physician who created Sherlock Holmes.

By the way, ‘Doc’ Martin actually has a doctorate – an honorary one from Bournemouth University.

Drawing: Marti Pellow and Madalena Alberto in Evita

Posted on November 4, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice‘s classic 1978 musical Evita made a brief return to London’s West End for a seven week run at the refurbished Dominion Theatre.

Talented newcomer, Portuguese actress Madalena Alberto played the Argentine political phenomenon Eva Peron. The role has propelled numerous unknown actresses into star players – such as Patti LuPone and Elaine Paige in the original West End and Broadway productions respectively. Critic Mark Shenton acknowledged he used the oldest cliché in showbiz -“a star is born”- writing about the “stunning vocalist”. She previously played Fantine in the 25th Anniversary production of Les Misérables.

Musical Theatre and pop icon Marti Pellow played the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, the narrator who cynically assesses the hysterical grief that gripped Argentina when Evita died.

Drawing: Ben Forster in Evita

Posted on November 3, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Ben Forster shot to fame after winning ITV’s Superstar competition in 2012, playing the title role in the revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar in its Arena Tour.

He has just completed a short run of another Lord Webber and Tim Rice musical, Evita, at the Dominion Theatre in London. The multi award winning musical charts the life of Eva Peron, the former wife of Argentine dictator Juan Peron and her rise to power.

Ben guest starred in the role of Agustin Magaldi, Eva Peron’s first love, when the production did 55 performances at the refurbished Dominion Theatre following a UK Tour. The final performance was on Saturday evening (1 November 2014).

Sketch: Edward Fox in The Audience at the Gielgud Theatre

Posted on November 1, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Peter Morgan’s The Audience premiered in the West End at the Gilegud Theatre on 15 February 2013, directed by Stephen Daldry. The play centres around weekly meetings called ‘audiences’ between the Queen anad her prime ministers, from her accession in 1952 to the present. Helen Mirren won the Olivier, Evening Standard and WhatsOnStage awards for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II.

Originally playing the role of Winston Churchill was Robert Hardy, but he withdrew before Press night, due to a fall cracking his ribs, and was replaced by Edward Fox.

Winner of two BAFTA Awards in The Go-Between (1970) and A Bridge Too Far (1977), Edward’s distinguished acting career dates back to his stage debut in 1958 and his first film appearance was as an extra in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962).

Arguably his defining role was the silent assassin in Fred Zinnemann’s 1973 thriller The Day Of The Jackal.

This a a 4B pencil portrait of Edward in his Churchillian pose, which he signed for me at a crowded stage door early in the run.

Drawing: Kristin Scott Thomas in Electra at The Old Vic Theatre

Posted on October 31, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Kristin Scott Thomas plays Sophocles’ avenging heroine Electra in the title role at London’s Old Vic.

It reunites Kristin Scott Thomas with director Ian Rickson after a string of great collaborations, including the award-winning 2007 revival of The Seagull at the Royal Court. The stage is set in-the-round, as it has been all year at the theatre. Frank McGuinness adapted this retelling of the 2,500 year old classic Greek tragedy of a daughter’s grief over her father’s death, consumed by a desire for revenge against his murderers, her mother and stepfather. An added bonus is the music of PJ Harvey.

The BBC News reported “Kristin Scott Thomas thrills critics at the Old Vic”. With a clutch of five star reviews, the idiom “kill for a ticket triumph” has been used.

The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish called Kristin’s performance a, “tour de force,” and said, “… within 90 minutes or so, the erstwhile screen goddess propels herself into the first rank of theatrical titans”.

Phil Taylor in The Independent said Kristin was, “excruciatingly good,” and The Telegraph’s Tim Walker (my favourite London critic) said, “Kristin Scott Thomas’ performance of raw human intensity makes this production unforgettable. This is unquestionably the Old Vic at its very best.”

Drawing: Sheridan Smith in Flare Path at Theatre Royal Haymarket

Posted on October 30, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

In 2011 Trevor Nunn directed a West End revival of Terrance Rattigan’s Flare Path at the Theatre Royal Haymarket as part of the playwright’s centenary year celebrations.

The story involves a love triangle between a pilot, his actress wife and a famous film star set in a hotel near an RAF Bomber Command airbase during WWII.

Universally acclaimed by the critics as a superb production, the were equally in agreement that Sheridan Smith stole the show. A major subplot involves her character Doris, a former barmaid who is married to and totally devoted to a Polish Count flying with the RAF.

She has the rare claim of winning Olivier Awards two years running followed by a BAFTA. Her second Olivier won for Flare Path. Sheridan is always generous with her time at the stage door where she signed this black biro sketch.

Drawing: Kerry Ellis in Wicked

Posted on October 29, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

In July 2006 Kerry Ellis joined the original London cast of the musical Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre, playing the role of Elphaba the misunderstood Wicked Witch of the West. She was temporary understudy to Idina Menzel for three months, replacing her and winning the 2008 WhatsOnStage Theatregoers Choice Award. She continues the role until June 2008, before transferring to the Broadway production of Wicked, where her five month run won her the 2009 Broadway Audience Award for Favourite Female Breakthrough Performance. Kerry returned to the London show for a further five months until May 2009.

In 2013 she was named the favourite West End ‘Elphaba’ in the WhatsOnStage.com poll. Not yet done with the role, Kerry has just completed a limited 12 week engagement replacing an injured Willemijn Verkaik the London’s Apollo Victoria where she kindly signed my sketch before her final performance.

Drawing: Mackenzie Crook in Jerusalem

Posted on October 28, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Mackenzie Crook is probably best known from TV’s The Office and Game of Thrones, or as Ragetti in the Pirates of the Caribbean Films.

A fellow illustrator and cartoonist, but it was his comedy sketches that dictated his career more. He wanted to be a graphic artist, but after being turned down three times by the Kent Institute of Art & Design he became a comedian alongside Iain Lee as ‘the cheeky, chirpy, chappy Charlie Cheese from Chorley’.

It was his stage work that gave me the opportunity to meet him. He received rave reviews as Ginger in Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem which transferred from London’s Royal Court Theatre in August 2009 to the Apollo in the West End before a stint on Broadway where he was nominated for the Tony award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.

I drew this minimal line sketch of Mackenizie and met him at the Apollo stage door, where his sketches illustrated the Jerusalem programme. I gave him a copy of this sketch, which he then asked me to sign – a first for a sig-seeking-sketching-stalker.

As a teenager he inherited a rare breeding pair of Mediterranean spur-thighed tortoises, leading to a hobby of breeding chelonians (the scientific name for turtles and the such like). I used to have a turtle called Algernon or ‘Algae’ for short cos he was green! Another conversation point, but that’s another story. He did uses his turtles in the play!