Drawing: Clare Higgins in The Fever at The Royal Court Theatre

Posted on March 13, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Clare Higgins is one of Britain’s great stage actresses, winning three Olivier Awards.

This sketch is from her role in Wallace Shawn’s The Fever at the Royal Court Theatre in the Spring of 2009. She signed it for me at the National Theatre stage door in early 2011 where she was playing Gertrude, “a dipsomaniac in four inch heels” opposite Rory Kinnear‘s Hamlet.

Clare returns to the London stage as a recovering alcoholic in Jon Robin Baitz’s Other Desert Cities with Sinead Cusack which is currently in previews at the Old Vic

Drawing: Jennifer Tilly

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Jennifer Tilly divides her time between acting and playing professional poker. Winning a number of awards in both careers. She received an Academy Award nomination in 1994 for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Bullets Over Broadway.

Jennifer signed this sketch at the Royal Court Theatre in London in June 2009 during her run in Grasses of a Thousand Colours.

Drawing: Miranda Raison

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Here’s another quick sketch of one of my fave actresses, Miranda Raison. Most may know her as Jo Portman in the British TV series Spooks, she is also in the third series of the BBC legal drama Silk. Miranda has just finished the theatrical version of Strangers on a Train at the Gielgud Theatre in London’s Shaftesbury Ave.

When not gracing the screens or treading the boards, Miranda walks the fairways and greens as a keen and very able golfer. She happily signed my drawing at the Donmar Warehouse during the season of The Physicists: A Comedy in Two Acts directed by Josie Rourke in July 2012

Drawing: Marion Cotillard

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

If your father’s an actor, playwright and director; your mother an actress and drama teacher, the chances of their daughter following suit are high. Predictably Marion Cotillard stuck to the script, reaching the dizzy heights of a Best Actress Oscar for her role as Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose (2007). She also collected a BAFTA, a French César and a Golden Globe for good measure. Director Olivier Dahan cast Marion because “her eyes were the same as Piaf.” The fact that she could sing also helped.

She also plays guitar, keyboard, tambourine and cello… and sings under the pseudonym Simone in Maxim Nucci’s band Vodelice. Apart from the glittering prizes for her Piaf performance, Marion said her hat collection increased dramatically. The number of handbags may have also multiplied, becoming the face of Lady Dior after her increase notoriety.

Marion is taking a break from her Greenpeace activism to film Macbeth with Michael Fassbender, playing the scheming Lady Macbeth with a distinctive French accent. The production moves into the impressive Ely Cathedral in Cambridge next week.

The above sketch, which Marion kindly signed, is not a good example of accurate observation. I never noticed the trademark mole in the middle of her forehead! …but I did manage to render her distinctive eyes.

Drawing: Michael Grandage

Posted on March 8, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Anyone raised in Penzance, Cornwall must end up in some form of theatrical vocation and that’s exactly what happened to Michael Grandage, who not only works in theatre but is one of Britain’s leading directors and producers. He has won over 13 awards, including an Olivier and a Tony. From 2002 to 2012 he succeeded Sam Mendes as the Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse.

He then established the Michael Grandage Company with James Bierman. They have just completed a fifteen month season of plays at the Noel Coward Theatre in the West End aimed at reaching a new generation of theatregoers through pricing and access with 100,000 £10 seats. Michael directed all five productions, including Privates on Parade with Simon Russell Beale, John Logan’s new play Peter and Alice with Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw, Daniel Radcliffe in The Cripple of Inishmaan and two Shakespeare plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Sheridan Smith and David Walliams, finishing with Jude Law as Henry V.

Michael is currently taking a break from the boards to direct Genius with Colin Firth and Michael Fassbender.

Drawing: Rose Byrne

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Australian actress Rose Byrne played the leading role in The Goddess of 1967 which won her the Best Actress award at the 2000 Venice Film Festival. She is probably best known for her role as Ellen Parsons alongside Glenn Close in the television series Damages (2007-2012) which earned her two Golden Globe and two Emmy nominations. She also starred in Insidious, X-Men: First Class and Bridesmaids.

Rose signed my sketch on a chilly, wintery evening on the red carpet for the I Give It A Year premiere at the Vue Cinema in Leicester Square on 24 January 2013.

Drawing: Juliet Stevenson in Happy Days at The Young Vic

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Critics are unanimous about Juliet Stevenson’s latest stage incarnation in Samuel Beckett’s HAPPY DAYS at the Young Vic. Playing Winnie,a woman tragically aware of her mental plight, requires the actress to be buried in a mound of sand. Sarah Hemming of the Financial Times wrote, “Lear in the storm, Winnie in the sandheap: Two of the greatest stage metaphors for the human condition and two of the most challenging roles for an actor.” The Guardian’s Michael Billington said Juliet “gives a remarkable performance.” and Henry Hutchings of the Evening Standard adds, she “brings grace, poise and a crazed resilience to the incurably optimestic Winnie.” Extra performances have been added due to demand with the play finishing 8 March.

Drawing: Daniel Radcliffe in The Cripple of Inishmaan at the Noël Coward Theatre

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

This is a quick sketch I drew from a poster on the wall of the Noel Coward Theatre, where inside, Daniel Radcliffe was playing the title role of cripple Billy Claven in THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN. I was waiting for Dan to make his customary, nightly appearance at the stage door to the waiting multitude. He did so and signed the artwork. Last week he picked up Best Actor at the WhatsOnStage Awards and will reprise the part for the Broadway run this April. Also, last week I watched him play another disabled character – this time the hunchback lab assistant Igor on the set of the revisionist remake of Mary Shelley’s classic horror tale FRANKENSTEIN, which was filming on the Royal Naval College grounds in Greenwich.

Drawing: Sarah Greene in The Cripple of Inishmaan at The Noël Coward Theatre

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Martin McDonagh’s cruel and disgracefully funny The Cripple of Inishmaan premiered in 1997 and received its first major revival as part of Michael Grandage’s star-studded first season of plays at the Noël Coward Theatre during the summer of 2013.

Irish actress Sarah Greene plays Helen, the love (albeit secret) interest of the disabled hero Billy – a feisty village wild girl who can’t be restrained from “pegging” eggs at people, especially despised priests, “… getting clergymen groping your arse doesn’t take much skill.”

Drawing: Pádraic Delaney and Gary Lilburn in The Cripple of Inishmaan

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Pádraic Delaney and Gary Lilburn complete my set of The Cripple of Inishmaan sketches. The third in the series of Michael Grandage’s five plays at the Noël Coward Theatre in London. It transfers for a Broadway run in April.

Pádraic international breakthrough came in 2006 as Irish revolutionary Teddy O’Donovan in Ken Loach’s The Wind That Shakes The Barley, which won the Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He followed up his role in Inishmaan with a consecutive shift in the following Michael Grandage Company play A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the twin roles of Oberon and Thesus.

Gary can currently be seen in the critically acclaimed Oscar nominated Philomena with Judi Dench