Drawing: Dominic Cooper in The Libertine

Posted on October 3, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

dominic-cooper

Described as one of Britain’s more eclectic actors, Dominic Cooper returns to the London stage as the legendary 17th Century poet and Restoration rebel the John Wilmot who’s appetite for excess is chronicled in the revival of Stephen Jeffrey’s THE LIBERTINE at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Last seen seven years ago at the National Theatre in PHEDRE, opposite Helen Mirren, where he also played Dakin in Alan Bennett’s THE HISTORY BOYS at the National in 2004, transferring to the Broadway production and then an International tour, including Sydney, Wellington and Hong Kong. He also repeated the role in the 2006 film version.

Directed by Tony and Olivier Award winner Tony Johnson, THE LIBERTINE is a portrait of debauchery and self-destruction, chronicling the exploits of the 2nd Earl of Rochester, the notorious willy-wagging rake, boozer and frenemy of King Charles II who died from his sins at the young age of 33. He wrote some of the most distinctive poetry of the 1670’s, sweetly versified, pungently phrased prose about premature ejaculation, impotence and the love of a young woman for an older man.

“You will not like me,” Dominic tells the audience in his opening monologue, clearly not the case, judging by the popular reaction of patrons and press alike.

Dominic signed my sketch on arrival at the theatre for Saturday’s matinee.

Drawing: Alice Bailey-Johnson in The Libertine

Posted on September 29, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

alice-baily-johnson

THE LIBERTINE, which follows the debauched exploits of the 2nd Earl of Rochester opened this week at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London after a limited run at the Theatre Royal Bath. Dominic Cooper plays the lead, besotted by the young actress Elizabeth Barry (Ophelia Lovibond) who ultimately rejects him. Consoling himself with
much whoring and drinking, he returns to his long-suffering, rusticated wife Elizabeth Malet played by Alice Bailey Johnson and dies.

Alice was recently seen in Mike Leigh’s MR TURNER, the biopic of eccentric British painter J M W Turner, and the popular TV series GRANTCHESTER. Her stage credits include OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR opposite Caroline Quentin in 2014 at the Theatre Royal Stratford East and NOISES OFF at the Old Vic, which I was lucky enough to see and Alice signed my cast sketch. I caught up with her again before Saturday’s matinee of THE LIBERTINE and she signed this Elizabeth drawing for me.

Drawing: Ophelia Lovibond in The Libertine

Posted on September 28, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

ophelia-lovibond

Ophelia Lovibond sounds a really posh name, but her background, growing up on a Shepherd’s Bush council estate in a single-parent family was anything but. In an interview with the Express this month she said, “It’s a mad name, but I think it was almost inevitable that I would end up in this profession and not become a librarian in Tunbridge Wells.”

She attended Saturday morning drama at 50p a session. Ophelia made her film debut as Bet in Roman Polanski’s OLIVER TWIST in 2005 and more recently played Carina in THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. TV viewers will know her as Sherlock’s new apprentice Kathryn ‘Kitty’ Winters in ELEMENTARY. This week she made her West End debut as the intrepid heroine and 17th Century actress Elizabeth Barry in THE LIBERTINE at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. This is a montage sketch of her in rehearsal and in the role, which she signed at the stage door before last Saturday’s matinee.

Drawing: Kathryn Hunter as Richard III

Posted on September 27, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

kathryn-hunter

The brilliant British actress Kathryn Hunter was born Aikaterini Hadjipateras in New York to Greek parents fifty-nine years ago and raised in England where she trained at RADA.
The Telegraph’s Charles Spencer once described her as “…diminutive in stature and slightly lame, she has a deep, guttural voice, eyes like black olives and the most expressive of faces.”

In 1991 she won an Olivier Award for her portrayal of the millionaire in Friedrich Durrenmatt’s THE VISIT. When reviewing Samuel Beckett’s FRAGMENTS at London’s Young Vic in 2008, The Guardian’s Andrew Dickson said that Kathryn “crams into a few minutes of stage time more than most actors achieve in a career.”

Her ‘uncommon ability to shape shift’ has led her to play roles typically reserved for male actors. In 1997 she was the first British female actor to play KING LEAR professionally and four years later she lead an all-female cast in RICHARD III at Shakespeare’s Globe.

For most of September this year, the ‘master of transformation’ performed ten roles in an hour at the Young Vic, including the title character, Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie in the world premiere of THE EMPEROR in what The Sunday Times declared, “her shape-shifting brilliance could be the stage performance of the year.”

I managed to catch up with her after the final matinee, which is no mean feat in itself as her boundless energy is not restricted to the stage. She was moving quickly looking for a friend, but did stop momentarily to thank me for this drawing I did of her as the Plantagenet King and sign it.

Drawing: Sir Kenneth Branagh – Plays At The Garrick

Posted on September 26, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

ken-branagh

For the past year Sir Kenneth Branagh and his theatre company’s creative home has been the Garrick Theatre on London’s Charing Cross Road. The ‘Plays At The Garrick’ debut season has now entered its final chapter with John Osborne’s THE ENTERTAINER, featuring Sir Ken in the lead role as the failing music-hall performer Archie Rice. He appeared in four of the six productions and co-directing three with Rob Ashford.
My montage sketch depicts him as Archie, hit-man Ralph in THE PAINKILLERS and Leontes, the King of Sicily in Shakespeare’s THE WINTER’S TALE. I caught up the the theatrical knight himself as he arrived at the stage door on Saturday morning, as usual, hours before the matinee and signed it for me. I asked if there would be another residency next year and he replied. “As Mr Schwarzenegger would say, we’ll be back.”

Drawing: Rachel Muldoon

Posted on September 20, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

rachel-muldoon

British dancer and actress Rachel Muldoon made her West End debut in 2007 as part of the GREASE ensemble at the Piccadilly Theatre, before joining WICKED at the Apollo Victoria as the Witch’s Mother and then onto CHICAGO at the Cambridge Theatre in 2010. She initially trained at the Royal Ballet School before studying at the Laine Theatre Arts in Surrey. While performing the Announcer Go-To-Hell Kitty in CHICAGO, she also understudied the lead role Roxie Hart, which critic Mark Stenton saw and wrote, “Particular revaluation at CHICAGO this afternoon, Rachel Muldoon, understudying Roxie, gave one of the best performances I’ve ever seen in the role.”

For a limited run earlier this year, Rachel played Dahlia in the Drew Mc Onie’s reimagined dance thriller of Robert Louis Stevenson’s sinister classic JEKYLL AND HYDE at the Old Vic, where she signed this sketch.

Drawing: Annapurna Sriram in The Spoils

Posted on September 9, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

annapurna-sriram

In May this year, Jesse Eisenberg’s dark comedy THE SPOILS transferred from its New York premiere run to London’s Trafalgar Studios for a three month season. Not all the original cast ventured to the West End, but joining Jesse and THE BIG BANG THEORY’s Kunal Nayyar was Annapurna Sriram who played Reshma, Kunal’s pushy medical student girlfriend. Annapurna, or Anna or AP as she is often called, explained the reason for reprising her role. “Reshma is something I am really proud of – that’s my role, my baby. I didn’t like the idea of someone else doing it.” It’s her second visit to London, having spent time at The Globe studying Shakespeare after competing her Arts Degree from Rutgers University.

She came to prominence in the 2015 supernatural horror series SOUTH OF HELL and more recently as Tara Mohr, the hard-partying employee of US Attorney Chuck Rhodes played by Paul Giamatti in the Showtime hit TV series BILLIONS.

Brooklyn-based Annapurna is Indian-American, which she said has helped her acting career. “We’re in a day and age where being ethnically ambiguous – which is what I am – is a commodity”. I meet the very amiable Anna at the Trafalgar Studio’s stage door a couple of weeks before the play finished in mid-August, where she took a photo of my drawing then signed it for me.

Drawing: Joesph Fiennes

Posted on September 6, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Joseph Fiennes

Joseph Alberic Twiselton-Wykeham-Fiennes simply signs Joe Fiennes. Just as well. He signed two sketches for me earlier this year while playing T E Laurence in Terrance Rattigan’s bio-drama ROSS at the Chichester Festival Theatre. The first was him in the Laurance of Arabia role and the second was this montage from two productions in which he played the title. Joe’s first professional stage appearance was in the West End in THE WOMAN IN BLACK in 1993, followed by A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY opposite Helen Mirren and John Hurt, which I was lucky enough to see. Joe has also appeared in some high profile films, including ELIZABETH and the Bard himself in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, for which he earned BAFTA and SAG Best Actor nominations.

In September 2005 he played George Dillion in EPITAPH FOR GEORGE DILLON at the Comedy Theatre and Cyrano in CYRANO DE BERGERAC at Chichester in 2009 which are both depicted in my drawing.

Drawing: Ellie Taylor

Posted on September 5, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Ellie Taylor

By her own admission British comedian Ellie Taylor started in comedy quite late. The thirty something comic was in her late 20’s when, after seeing a friend perform a five-minute stand-up routine, became a contestant on the ITV talent-reality show SHOW ME THE FUNNY, reaching the semi-finals. Asked why she chose comedy over her marketing day job, she replied, “arrogance, neediness and boredom.” She told BIG ISSUE, “I want to be a professional show off.

Her 2014 Edinburgh Fringe debut show ELLIEMENTARY played to packed crowds at The Laughing Horse. Although Ellie points out it was her ‘debut hour show’. She did do a half-hour gig the previous year, but this was her full, proper debut. You get the picture. She followed that success with a national tour in the spring of 2015. Ellie continued to make an impact on the small screen, hosting BBC Three’s SNOG MARRY AVOID? and has also appeared on MOCK THE WEEK and 8 OUT OF 10 CATS. She described the daunting task of working with some of UK’s great comedians as an excellent way to “shit oneself discreetly.”

This drawing of Ellie is based on her publicity pic for ELLIEMENTARY. She was doing a one night stand-up at London’s Comedy Store in early July before taking her INFIDELITY show to this year’s EdFringe. I passed by earlier in the day when the venue was closed, but luckily a staff member was have a siggy break outside the front door, which was a siggy break for me because he said he would pass it on and he obviously did.

Drawing: Ksenia Ovsyanick, Principal with the Berlin State Ballet

Posted on September 2, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Ksenia Ovsyanick

Minsk-born ballerina Ksenia Ovsyanick was awarded a scholarship to study at the English Royal Ballet School in London after performing at the 2005 Prix de Lausanne. After graduating three years later she joined the company, becoming a Soloist in 2014. This year she left the ENB to become a Principal with the Berlin Staatsballett which starts its 2016/17 season this weekend.

One of the highlights of her time at the English Ballet was performing the title role in the World Premiere of FIREBIRD at the London Coliseum in March 2012 as part of the BEYOND BALLET RUSSES programme. This sketch is based on that role with Ksenia wearing the distinctive headdress and winged harness. She signed it for me at the ENB before leaving for Germany.