Drawing: Phoebe Fildes in The Mousetrap

Posted on July 23, 2018 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of Phoebe Fildes in The Mousetrap at St Martin's Theatre on London's West End

Agatha Christie’s legendary whodunit THE MOUSETRAP is the world’s longest-running play in modern times, since starting at the Ambassadors Theatre on the 25th November 1952. In 1974 it transferred next door to its current residency, the St Martin’s Theatre.

In that time many different casts have appeared. The original included Sir Richard Attenborough as Detective Sergeant Trotter and his wife, Sheila Sim as Mollie Ralston. The contemporary cast changes regularly and the current one began in April this year.

Over the past few years I have drawn a couple of characters after each changeover. Mollie, the proprietor of Monkswell Manor, where the action is set, is one I have concentrated on. When passing the theatre last month I noticed that Phoebe Fildes was playing Mollie. I had met her at the Vaudeville earlier this year when she was Lady Stutfield in Oscar Wilde’s A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE and she signed my cast drawing.

Phoebe also played the Girl in the musical ONCE at the Phoenix Theatre and spent two years with the Shakespeare’s Globe’s world tour taking HAMLET to every country on earth with multiple roles, including Ophelia, Gertrude and Horatio. So I had to do a quick sketch of her as Mollie from the publicity stills in front of the theatre, which signed it for me.

Drawing: Aidan Turner in The Lieutenant of Innishmore

Posted on July 19, 2018 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of Aidan Turner in The Lieutenant of Inishmore at the Noel Coward Theatre in London's West End

Aidan Turner made his West End debut this month as the unhinged Padraic in Michael Grandage’s revival of Martin McDonagh’s brutal black comedy THE LIEUTENANT OF INNISHMORE at the Noel Coward Theatre. Padraic, turned down by the IRA for being ‘too mad’, and unable to be accommodated by any mainstream terrorist organisations, becomes a lieutenant in the INLA, a Republican paramilitary splinter group.

The Evening Standard’s Henry Hitchings called it, “FATHER TED colliding with RESERVOIR DOGS – or perhaps more appropriately Reservoir Cats.” Audiences first meet Padraic pulling out the the toenails of James, a Belfast drug pusher, chastising him for selling marijuana to good Catholic children as opposed to Protestant children, which he deems marginally acceptable. As he is about to slice James’s right nipple off he gets a call that from home that his beloved cat and only friend for the past 15 years ‘Wee Thomas’ is poorly. He breaks down sobbing and decides to immediately return to Innishmore to see his ailing moggy.

‘Wee Thomas’ is in fact dead, head smashed in, brains squeezed out ‘like toothpaste.’ Padraic seeks violent retribution – a sentimental psychopath’s overweening grief for his pet and indifference to human life – setting the tone for the rest of the play. As Henry Hitchings observes he “plays him, not as some wide-eyed barbarian, but as a man endowed with demented innocence.”

“This is TITUS ANDRONICUS played for laughs,” wrote Michael Billington in the Guardian, who said, “Aidan Turner is terrific in this shocking comedy.” A sentiment shared by all.
I met Aidan on a quiet Thursday afternoon, before the run started, as he was leaving the theatre for a brief break from final preparations. We were able to have a very pleasant, uninterrupted chat as he signed this rehearsal rendering, prior to the POLDARK and HOBBIT hoards descending once the season got underway.

Drawing: Miriam Margoyles in Madame Rubinstein

Posted on July 17, 2018 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of Miriam Margoyles in Madame Rubinstein at the Park Theatre in London

In May last year the irresistible BAFTA Award-winning actress Miriam Margoyles returned to the London stage in the titular role of Jez Bond’s MADAME RUBINSTEIN at the Park Theatre. The play centres around the intense rivalry between 20th century cosmetic giants Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden (played by Frances Barber). Coincidently, it was also the subject of WAR PAINT, a simultaneous production on Broadway with Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole.

I last saw Miriam as Nell in Samuel Beckett’s ENDGAME at the Duchess Theatre in 2009. Three years earlier she was one of the original cast members of the musical WICKED, as Madame Morrible at the Apollo and subsequently at the George Gershwin Theatre on Broadway. HARRY POTTER fans will know her as Professor Pomona Sprout. I’m a big fan of her THE REAL MARIGOLD HOTEL travel doco series… and told her so.

Her ‘comic tour de force’ in MADAME RUBINSTEIN was described by Alun Hood in his WhatsOnStage review. “Margoyles plays Rubinstein-so imperious that even her own children call her ‘Madame’-to the absolute hilt: she’s brash, amoral, manipulative, paranoid, rude, crazy: a bejewelled gorgon in a pillar box red dress. She is also, in Margoyles’ endlessly skilled hands, utterly irresistible.”

Miriam is a humanitarian advocate for many causes. I managed to catch-up with her when she arrived at the Royal Society of Medicine last Friday evening for The Silver Line’s fundraising event, which operates a 24 hour helpline for older people, where she signed my Madame R sketch.

Drawing: David Haig in Pressure

Posted on July 16, 2018 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of David Haig in Pressure at the Ambassadors Theatre on London's West End

It’s been called the most important weather forecast of all time. In June 1944, over 150,000 Allied troops would land on five sites in France, in what would prove to be one of the most decisive actions of WWll. After months of meticulous planning, ‘Operation Overlord’ was set to go, but there was one crucial aspect which the military commanders couldn’t control: the weather.

It’s the focus of the wartime drama PRESSURE, written by Olivier Award winner David Haig. The play is set over a 72-hour period leading up to the launch of the operation. Chief meteorologist, Group Captain James Stagg, played by David is the weather adviser to the overall commander General Dwight Eisenhower. Despite a heatwave, Stagg calculates the weather will turn nasty at the time the invasion is scheduled, risking the lives of thousands. This is contrary to the prediction of American celebrity weatherman, Colonel Irving Krick. Stagg has to convince Eisenhower that he is right, delaying the operation by a week, waiting for the weather to improve.

After premiering at Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre in May 2014 to critical acclaim and transferring to the Chichester Festival Theatre at the end of the same month, the original production has now been revived at the West End’s Ambassador Theatre, coinciding with the 74th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

The always affable David, signed my sketch last month at the Ambassadors stage door.

Drawing: Stephanie Corley, Quirijn de Lang and Zoe Rainey in Kiss Me Kate

Posted on July 5, 2018 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of Stephanie Corley, Quirijn deLang and Zoe Rainey in Kiss Me Kate at the London Coliseum

Opera North’s award-winning production of Cole Porter’s Broadway comedy classic KISS ME KATE has just completed it’s very brief one-week run at the London Coliseum. The West End debut was also at the same venue, opening on March 8 1951, after premiering at the New Century Theatre on Broadway two years earlier, winning 5 Tony Awards.

This farcical battle of the sexes is set both on and off-stage during the production of a musical version of Shakespeare’s THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, revolving around the tempestuous love lives of actor-manager Fred Graham and his leading lady and ex-wife Lilli Vanessi. Add to the mix, Fred’s current paramour Lois Lane, her gambler boyfriend Bill and a couple of pursuing gangsters and you have the perfect set-up for ‘showbiz shannagians’.

After an initial run at the Theatre Grand Leeds in May, this production transferred to London and is now at the Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre. This ‘jubilant marriage of Porter and the Bard’ had the critics buzzing. The best comment was in the Guardian’s five-star review – “So hot, it’s practically a fire risk”.

Acclaimed opera singers Stephanie Corley and Quirijn de Lang play the lead roles-Lilli/Kate and Fred/Petruchio respectively. West End star Zoe Rainey is Lois/Bianca. I left this montage sketch at the stage door and it came back yesterday, signed and dedicated.

Drawing: Jemma Redgrave in The Great Game: Afghanistan

Posted on July 4, 2018 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of Jemma Redgrave in The Great Game: Afghanistan at the Tricycle Theatre in London and Public Theater in New York

THE GREAT GAME: AFGHANISTAN premiered at London’s Tricycle Theatre in April 2009, directed by Nicolas Kent and Indhu Rubasingham and featured English actress Jemma Redgrave, before transplanting to New York’s Public Theater the following year.

It’s a chronological history of foreign involvement in Afghanistan since 1842. Described as a ‘play of epic proportions’… it’s actually 12 playlets, divided into three sets of four, that required seven hours of on-stage acting. With intermissions it turned into a 12 hour theatrical marathon for cast and audience.

Jemma, a fourth generation actress from of the Redgrave dynasty, appeared in four of the 12. Her early stage career included the role of Irina in the 1990 revival of Anton Chekhov’s THE THREE SISTERS alongside aunts, Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave – the first and only time they have appeared in a theatre production together.

Jemma is also a familiar face on the small screen, playing Eve Granger in COLD BLOOD and Major Bernice Wolfe on the BBC medical drama HOLBY CITY, among many more. She signed my sketch at the Old Vic last month while she was appearing in MOOD MUSIC.

Drawing: Sarah Soetaert in Chicago

Posted on June 28, 2018 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of Sarah Soetaert in Chicago at the Phoenix Theatre on London's West End

At the age of 9, Sarah Soetaert left her West Flanders hometown of Kortrijk and moved to Antwerp, chasing a dream of becoming a ballet dancer. Six years later, she gained a place at the English National Ballet in London. A chance audition for the musical CATS and a West End debut lead her down a ‘naturally unfolding path’ into musical theatre that has blossomed into a career of acting, singing, and dancing on both stage and screen.

Sarah is currently reprising the lead role, Roxie Hart in the 21st Anniversary production of the Kander and Ebb musical CHICAGO at the Phoenix Theatre, alongside Cuba Gooding Jr, Ruthie Henshall and Josefina Gabrielle. Roxie is a chorus girl who has murdered her lover, but manages to get (spoiler alert) acquitted with the help of a smooth sleazy layer.

It’s a part she knows well. She is the longest running ‘Roxie’ in the West End, beginning in 2007 at the Cambridge Theatre, returning to the role numerous times over the course of six years. The original Time Out review said, “It’s Sarah Soetaert as the crafty fake-ingenue Roxie, who steals the show.”

Sarah signed my Roxie sketch for me after last Saturday’s matinee. Cast changes have been announced, but Sarah told me her contract has been extended.

Drawing: Susan Hampshire in An Ideal Husband

Posted on June 27, 2018 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of Susan Hampshire in An Ideal Husband at the Vaudeville Theatre on London's West End

If you’re ever feeling a bit downcast, a couple of minutes with the absolutely delightful Susan Hampshire, who celebrated her 81st birthday recently, will take your blues away. I was feeling rather chipper in fact when I met Susan, one of my all time favourite actresses at the Vaudeville stage door last week, but felt even better after our brief encounter.

Susan is back on the London stage as Lady Markby in Jonathan Church’s star-studded revival of Oscar Wilde’s glittering comedy AN IDEAL HUSBAND. After an initial run at the Theatre Royal Bath last year, the production, settled into the Vaudeville Theatre in May for a two month residency as part of Classic Spring’s year-long Wilde season.

In his Guardian review, Michael Billington wrote, “Susan Hampshire brilliantly turns the gossiping Lady Markby into an unquenchable social gusher.” Paul Taylor, in the Independent continued the compliments, “Susan Hampshire is an absolute delight as Lady Markby, wittering away about modern manias in an hilarious tour de force of empty-headed high society prattling.”

My two-minute conversation with Susan included mutual admiration for each other’s artistic prowess, as she happily signed this character drawing I did of her.

Drawing: Orlando Bloom in Killer Joe

Posted on June 26, 2018 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of Orlando Bloom in Killer Joe at Trafalgar Studios in London's West End

Orlando Bloom has returned to the boards after an five year absence, playing the titular hitman in Tracey Lett’s Texas trailer-park Gothic play KILLER JOE at the Trafalgar Studios.

After making his West End debut eleven years ago in IN CELEBRATION at the Duke of York’s, Orlando’s first and only Broadway appearance was the lead in ROMEO AND JULIET at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in 2013, which the New York Times described as a “first rate Broadway debut.”

He plays Joe Cooper, a Dallas policeman with a sideline in contract killing, who is hired by the dysfunctional Smith family to kill a wealthy matriarch and claim the insurance money. When the clients can’t produce the cash for a down payment, Joe demands an alternative ‘retainer.’ Writing in the Telegraph, Paul Taylor says, “Bloom’s Joe is creepily calm and considered, hypnotic in the measured slowness with which he masks his menacing intent. The controlled swagger of his rhythms is in distinct contrast to all the chaotic kerfuffing of the trailer folk. Bloom’s fine performance gathers in intensity and by the end of the play he’s in full sinister command of the stage.”

The Guardian’s Michael Billington has similar praise for Orlando’s performance. “Bloom excellently suggests Joe’s cool confidence, exaggerated politese and head for business.”

Orlando signed and dedicated my drawing a couple of weeks ago after a Saturday matinee.

Drawing: Isabelle Huppert in The Maids

Posted on June 25, 2018 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of Isabelle Huppert in The Maids at the New York City Centre in August 2014

Despite a nearly five decade film and theatre career, Isabelle Huppert really only appeared on the Hollywood radar two years ago with her Golden Globe win and Oscar nomination for her role as Michelle Leblanc in Paul Verhoeven’s neo-noir rape-revenge psychological thriller ELLE.

Recognised as one of France’s most acclaimed and decorated actors… in fact, France’s MOST decorated according to ‘A Beginner’s Guide To Isabelle Huppert’, written by the HuffPost’s Matthew Jacobs after Isabelle’s Oscar nod. “Isabelle Huppert is a certified legend. Phrased differently, Huppert is France’s Meryl Streep,” he said.

In 2013 Isabelle returned to the stage with Cate Blanchett in Jean Genet’s THE MAIDS for the Sydney Theatre Company, playing sisters, Solange and Claire in the new English translation by director Benedict Andrews and Andrew Upton. The original 1947 play was based on the notorious murder case in which two homicidal sisters killed their mistress and her daughter. The production transferred to New York for the summer’s theatrical centrepiece at the Lincoln Centre Festival in August 2014.

Isabelle signed my sketch after her reading of the MARQUIS DE SADE at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London’s Southbank Centre a couple of weeks ago.