Sketch: Bomber’s Moon at Trafalgar Studios

Posted on May 9, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Bomber's Moon

“One of the funniest and most touching moments to be seen on the current London stage… it’s a masterpiece” said The Stage about William Ivory’s Bomber’s Moon which is playing at London’s Trafalgar Studios until 23 May. Direct from a critically acclaimed run at the Park Theatre, this cross-generational two hander is directed by Matt Aston.

James Bolam plays ailing former RAF gunner Jimmy, living in a nursing home and Steve John Shepherd is his new care assistant David. Both have been through the wars. One is fighting the battle of infirmity and the injustices of ageing, the other is desperate to lay to rest the past and build a new further. Both are fighting for a lasting peace.

Thankfully James was the complete opposite to his cantankerous character and really liked the sketch but I missed Steve on the first attempt because he used the front door.

Being in two places at the same time would certainly be an advantage in this business. Still, I was in the right place the next day after a matinee and Steve completed the mission.

Sketch: Lorna Want and Ian McIntosh in Beautiful

Posted on May 8, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Lorna Want and Ian McIntosh in Beautiful

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, the untold story of the legendary singer’s journey from school girl to superstar, opened at London’s Aldwych Theatre earlier this year.

It was nominated for eight Olivier Awards, winning two at last month’s ceremony for Katie Brayben in the title role and Lorna Want as Cynthia Weil, who along with her partner Barry Mann became Carole King’s songwriting peers and best friends. Also included in the Olivier nominations was Ian McIntosh’s performance as Mann in the Best Supporting Role in a Musical catagory. The show includes some of their songs, such as Up On The Roof and On Broadway.

I left this drawing of Lorna and Ian in their respective roles at the theatre and it came back, signed and dedicated. Beautiful!

Sketch: Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Hay Fever at the Noel Coward Theatre

Posted on May 7, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Hay Fever Phoebe Waller Bridge

I first met the exquisite Phoebe Waller-Bridge during the revival of Noel Coward’s Hay Fever at the Noel Coward Theatre in February 2012, where she was playing the “tittering nymph” Sorel Bliss. Amongst her dialogue is the line, “I should like to be a fresh, open air girl with a passion for games”.

The Guardian’s Michael Billington said her performance, “makes something truly memorable of Judith’s daughter, whom she plays as a gauche 19 year old trying strenuously hard to be soigné and sophisticated”.

“Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s breathtaking Sorel has perfected a gauche angularity, intermittent mannishness and a toddler’s baleful pout” wrote Kate Kellaway also in The Guardian.

Seen recently on TV as the steely young lawyer Abby Thompson in the popular ITV crime drama Broadchurch, the award winning actress writiter and director will now write and star in her own E4 comedy Crashing about a group of young property guardians. In a recent interview Phoebe spoke about writing and performing and, “the tiptoeing line between laughing and crying. That, for me is the key to drama. If you make people laugh, they make themselves so vulnerable to you… and then you can stab them”.

Sketch: Jeremy Northam, Hay Fever at the Noel Coward Theatre

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Hay Fever Jeremy Northam

British actor Jeremy Northam returned to London’s West End after a lengthy absence to play the bamboozled uptight diplomat Richard Greatham in the 2012 revival of Noël Coward’s Hay Fever at the theatre named after the celebrated playwright.

Jeremy’s stage career got off to an auspicious beginning, replacing Daniel Day Lewis in the role of Hamlet at the National in 1989 before winning an Olivier Award a year later for his performance in The Voysey Inheritance.

“A peach of a performance… quivering with shy lust,” wrote Michael Billington in The Guardian of Jeremy’s performance in Hay Fever. Among Jeremy’s many acclaimed screen roles is as Welsh actor and signer Ivor Novello in Gosford Park (2012) “I think this performance by Jeremy Northam is one of the really, best performances I’ve ever seen in film” said its director, Robert Altman.

Sketch: Amy Morgan, Hay Fever at the Noel Coward Theatre

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Hay Fever Amy Morgan

TV audiences may know Welsh Amy Morgan as Mr Selfridge‘s accessories girl Grace Calthorpe gossiping among the gloves and bags, but I became aware of her acting prowess in Noel Coward’s country weekend comedy Hay Fever at London’s Noel Coward Theatre in 2012.

She played Jackie Coryton, described by critic Julia Rank, “Amy Morgan is enjoyable as the ignored dumb blonde Jackie, perhaps the most endearing character, invited so that Mr Bliss could study a flapper in domestic surroundings”.

Kate Kellaway called Amy’s performance, “wonderful” in her Guardian review. Amy won a prestigious Ian Charleson Award nomination for The Country Wife at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester She was awarded the runner up prize.

Sketch: Lindsay Duncan, Hay Fever at the Noel Coward Theatre

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Hay Fever Lindsay Duncan

For his masterly revival of Hay Fever, the first Noel Coward play staged at the Noel Coward Theatre, director Howard Davies assembled a phenomenal cast, headed by the “consistently first class” Lindsay Duncan as the matriarchal Judith Bliss.

The production, which ran from February to June in 2012 reunited both director and actor who together received seven major international theatre awards for another Coward revival, Private Lives in 2001. Lindsay won her second Olivier Award for that performance opposite Alan Rickman. She also received a Tony nomination when the play transferred to Broadway.

Quentin Letts in the MailOnline opened his five star review, “behold Lindsay Duncan in full sail as Noël Coward’s nightmarish Judith Bliss”. The Telegraph’s Tim Walker added, Lindsay Duncan is on splendidly imperious form as Judith Bliss.”

Among Lindsay’s impressive CV is a little known fact that she was the voice of the android TC-14 in Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace to please her young son.

Sketch: Hay Fever at the Noël Coward Theatre

Posted on May 2, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Hay Fever

Noel Coward’s 1924 play Hay Fever is often described as the quintessential English play – a cross between high farce and a comedy of manners. It had a major West End revival at the theatre named after him in 2012.

Both The Telegraph’s critics Charles Spencer and Tim Walker gave it five stars. “Howard Davies cracking production… superbly funny… transforms triviality into comic perfection”. Tim called it “excruciatingly funny”. Michael Billington wrote in The Guardian, “it helps that he has a cast that could, as Coward said of his own 1964 revival, play the Albanian telephone directory”.

Led by the sublime Lindsay Duncan as Judith Bliss, the stellar cast included Kevin McNally as her testy and bookish husband, who’s “wearing a bit thin now” and the delightful Olivia Colman as the predatory vamp Myra Arundel.

This is one of a series of sketches I drew based on the production which both Olivia and Kevin signed in May 2012. The latest revival with Felicity Kendal opened this week at the Duke of York’s theatre in London, so I know what I’ll be drawing this week.

Sketch: Timothy West as King Lear

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Timothy West

Seasoned British actor Timothy West, noted for his great power and command on the classical stage, has played King Lear three times. The latest was in 2003 for English Touring Theatre on a UK tour and at the Old Vic in London.

The Stephen Unwin directed production toured for three months in autumn 2002 to great acclaim, winning West a Manchester Evening News Award for Best Actor. His moving portrayal of the fallen king at the Old Vic received rave reviews and bought in the crowds, extending the season less than a week after the play opened.

Timothy has played other roles in the Shakespearean masterpiece, including Gloucester to Ian Holm’s moanch ain the National Theatre’s 1997 production, directed by Richard Eyre, that was also filmed for the BBC.

I caught up with Timothy as he left the Donmar Warehouse last night, where he is part of a huge ensemble cast for Josie Rourke‘s The Vote. I showed him my sketch of him as Lear asking him if he wouldn’t mind signing it, and he smiled, saying, of course and duly ‘graphed it.

Drawing: Kumar Sangakkara

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

kumar sangakkara

The current world number one batsman in test cricket is Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakkara, who has just retired from the international arena but has taken up a two year contract with English county Surrey, though some media reports suggest he may be reconsidering his retirement.

He is widely regarded as one of the best batsmen of all time with a Test average of 58.66 and an ODI average of 42. A left-handed top order batsman, he has bowled a few right arm off breaks and is an accomplished wicket-keeper, having the largest number of dismissals in ODI cricket with 449 and the highest number of stumpings, 99 in ODIs.

Kumar’s 11 double centuries in tests is second only to the great Sir Don Bradman (12) and along with fellow Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene shares the highest partnership for any wicket – 624 against South Africa in 2006. Kumar scored 287 and Mahela 374.

I not only got to see him play in the opening game of the County cricket season at the Kia Oval last Sunday against Essex, thanks to my friend Dan’s membership and generosity, but also got to meet him after the end of day’s play.

The world’s best batsman was very affable and chatted away awhile happily signing my sketch and a photo for me.

Sketch: Tracie Bennett in End Of The Rainbow

Posted on April 29, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Tracie Bennet Over The Rainbow

There was huge critical acclaim for double Olivier Award winning actress Tracie Bennett’s virtuoso turn in the lead role of Peter Quilter’s musical drama End Of the Rainbow, which focuses on the final chapter of Judy Garland’s life. It premiered in Sydney in 2005 before West End and Broadway transfers.

The London production, which enjoyed an extended run at the Trafalgar Studio from November 2010 to May 2011, received four Olivier Award nominations including Best Actress for Tracie. The show opened on Broadway at the Belasco Theater in March 2012 with Tracie receiving the lead role and earning a Tony nomination as well as winning the Outer Critics’ Circle and Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Play.

I met the engaging Tracie at the 2011 Oliviers at Covent Garden where she signed a ‘Judy’ sketch for me, which I’ve already posted. This one is a montage from the play, depicting the darker side of the role as Judy Garland battled with her drug and alcohol addiction during her final tour of the UK in 1969.

I left it at the Trafalgar Studios and obviously Tracie struggled to find a pen with ample ink. That’s another one of the risks you take when not getting the ‘graph in person – you don’t get to choose the weapon! But, she not only signed it, she sent me a nice card as well. Thanks, Tracie.

Tracie Bennett Thank You