Winter is starting to bite here in the UK so why not post a little bit of Summer with a quick sketch of one of the immensely talented Strallen sisters. Summer was headlining with Tom Chambers in TOP HAT at London’s Aldwych Theatre in the summer of 2012 when I did this ‘lineal shorthand’ sketch of her, which some would say was a visual metaphor for our British summers – bright but quick!
It’s not my birthday, but it is nearly Christmas…. faint reason to post this today, but I liked it and the lovely Kara Tointon. Vaguely interestingly enough this is the only drawing signed on my actual birthday, which is in April. Kara was appearing in Alan Ayckbourne’s ABSENT FRIENDS at the Harold Pinter Theatre in 2012 and I was getting a cast sketch signed at the same time.
One of the other collectors happened to mention it was their birthday that day and were given tickets to see the play. Heaven knows why I piped up and said it was mine as well and I only have this sketch. But I did. She was signing it at the time and wrote this message on it.
As you may have realised drawing sketches and then getting them signed takes time. Hanging around stage doors in all weather conditions is part of the package. There are a variety of things one can do to pass the time, not all of them worthwhile. Sometimes I get out my little A5 Ryman’s sketch pad and start employing my trusty 4B clutch pencil.
On one such occasion on a balmy summer’s evening, while waiting for Kristin Scott Thomas, Lia Williams and Rufus Sewell to emerge after a performance of BETRAYAL at the Comedy Theatre to sign a cast drawing, I drew this quick portrait of Kristin… manners, Dame Kristin, although she wasn’t a Dame then in 2011. She kindly signed and dedicated both renderings for me.
“The instant I saw the photograph my mouth fell open and my pulse began to race.”
This is the second drawing I did of Nicole Kidman as scientist Rosalind Franklin who cracked the DNA code in Anna Ziegler’s PHOTOGRAPH 51, which has just completed its run at London’s Noel Coward Theatre. Her much anticipated return to the West End won her the Evening Standard Award for Best Actress at this week’s award ceremony.
As you can imagine large crowds gathered after each evening performance for Nicole so it was a bit of a mission to get near let alone get anything signed. She was very accommodating but her signature was mostly the quick abbreviated version which is better than nothing at all.
The wonderful Jenny Galloway is currently playing Mrs G in the West End transfer of MR FOOTE’S OTHER LEG at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. The double Lawrence Olivier Award winner’s character, Mrs Garner was described by The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish as a ‘fibbertigibbet’… a word that had not registered in my vocabulary bank until now. It is a Middle English word for a ‘flighty or whimsical person’ or in more contemporary times, slang for ‘gossipy or over-talkative’.
Jenny’s long and distinguished stage career includes the role of Madame Thenardier in LES MISERABLES on both the West End and Broadway boards and the 10th and 25th Anniversary performances. She can also be heard on the cast recording of the show as well as OLIVER!, MAMMA MIA! and MARY POPPINS.
Jenny’s versatility came to the fore at the Haymarket stage door in the pouring rain a few nights ago when I asked her to sign this sketch. I held the drawing and she worked the sharpie pen while holding my umbrella… a real trooper, as they say in show business and not a drop of H2O on the paper.
Thanks to the kindness of our friends Richard and Graham, Frankie and I enjoyed an excellent evening at the Theatre Royal Haymarket a couple of weeks ago to see one of the best plays in the West End at the moment, MR FOOTE’S OTHER LEG.
With the brilliant Simon Russell Beale in the lead role as the trailblazing Georgian actor,playwright, theatre manager, cross-dressing comic and ‘consummate wag’ Samuel Foote, supported by an equally brilliant cast including Dervla Kirwan, Joseph Milson and Micah Balfour the entertainment of the highest order was assured.
Ian Kelly’s play, based on the biography of the same name premiered at the Hampstead Theatre earlier this year under the direction of Richard Eyre, before transferring, appropriately to the Theatre Royal Haymarket, the very venue that Foote owned, securing the Royal patent. Described as the ‘Oscar Wilde of the 18th Century’, Samuel Foote lost a leg to a riding accident, but didn’t lose his desire to stay on stage. “The show must hop on!” His name fitted (oh the irony!) his fate.
He became more reckless and his entrepreneur career abruptly ended with accusations of sodomy. This sketch featuring Simon, Dervla, Joseph and Micah was baptized with London’s autumnal rains as I managed to get all four to sign it after two attempts at the uncovered stagedoor. Obviously Mr Foote didn’t think of us graphemes back in his day.
The much-lauded ancient Greek tragedy ORESTEIA’s transfer from North London’s small Almeida Theatre to the Trafalgar Studios in the West End ended on Saturday. Once again I left it to the final curtain (well, final day) to get a sketch signed, with more than the usual obstacles in the way.
This is a sharp contemporary production of Aeschylus’s trilogy. The play is nearly four hours long so the matinee starts at 1pm. I had this drawing of the two leads; Lia Williams as Klytemnestra and Angus Wright as Agamemnon for some time and had tried on a couple of occasions to get it ‘graphed. From that I gathered that both went in earlier than the rest of the cast so I stationed myself at the stage door around 10.30am.
Right: obstacles. Firstly, preparations for the Rememberance Sunday service on Whitehall, where the Studios are located, were underway. There were the usual access restrictions, but this was insurmountable. Secondly, two large removal vans were parked outside the stage door for the removal of the set and associated production paraphernalia after the evening’s performance, blocking the entire street (well backs alley). These proved to be more “visual obstacles” as the cast could slip by unnoticed. Thirdly, it was raining cats and dogs, and elephants and giraffes, in fact a veritable weather zoo. The Trafalgar stage door has little cover, but its redeeming feature is a small covered corridor leading to the internal door. That proved a sig-saver.
Having built you up with all these potential problems, Lia and Angus arrived together at 11am and both signed in the said redeemable covered corridor so I could have written this in two sentences, but where’s the fun in that… it’s a Greek tragedy after all.
Packages arriving, addressed in my handwriting always exit me, especially in the plural. Yesterday it was the singular, but I was excited none-the-less. It had a US stamp, meaning one of my drawings sent to Broadway had come back….hopefully signed. Indeed it was and a real doozy-my Old Times sketch signs by all three British cast members, Clive Owen, Eve Best and Kelly Reilly. I’m not sure of the etymology of ‘doozy’. I think it can be ‘good’ and ‘bad’. This sums up autograph collecting via the mail. Somedays are great and somedays, not so great. The main meaning is it’s ‘big’ and ‘memorable.’
The Harold Pinter three-hander about the battle for sexual dominance is having it’s Broadway revival at the American Airlines Theatre, directed by fellow Brit and Tony-winner Douglas Hodge to both critical and commercial acclaim. Clive and Kelly were making their debuts on ‘The Great White Way’ and now, also on my theatre sketches. I have had the privilege of seeing Eve on the London stage and she has signed for me, so the Olivier Award-winner was my point of contact. Like her performances her thoughtfulness is top drawer.
As you can see by the date on this sketch, it hasn’t happened yet. It is in fact a piece of history yet to take place and I am unashamedly promoting it. London has a long-standing tradition of ‘pub theatre’, incorporating the culinary and theatrical arts, in even longer-standing establishments across the English capital. Truc Vert is not a pub, but it’s about to become part of the tradition. It’s a restaurant, tucked away in Mayfair’s North Audley Street, described as “a little rustic oasis of artisan food and premium wines.” Named after the beach on France’s south west coast, it has the authentic ambience of one of the regions infamous fisherman’s huts and this Saturday it will host some French histrionics… and hospitality with an evening of ‘restaurant theatre’ entitled Dining With Marie Antoinette.
As history reveals, Marie Antoinette was the ill-fated Queen of France. She was a trendsetter, synonymous with big hair and even bigger dresses, who has become a pop culture icon and subject of numerous films, books and songs. Married into the French Royal family at fifteen she became a teen idol in her day and at one point attracted an uncontrollable crowd of 50,000 Parisians, resulting in 30 of them being crushed to death. (Note to self about the dangers of stalking). However, that popularity soon went belly-up when Marie A became Queen at the age of 19, after her husband Louis-Auguste ascended the throne. By all accounts the multi-linguiled Austrian could sing and dance, but was a bit shortsighted when it came to spending on her lavish lifestyle and gambling habits. Actually she was shortsighted, physically as well. The upside of that according to one historian was that it “brought an enchanted, misty glimmer to her large, blue-grey eyes.” The very blue-grey eyes attached to her head that was detached from the rest of her body by the revolting peasants (later to be known as the French Revolution) who decided to cut off her credit with the guillotine at 12.15 pm on the 16th of October 1793. Just desserts for telling them to “eat cake”, a quote attributed to her by mistake. C’est la vie.
What more could the discerning diner want than tasty French cuisine with one of France’s most charismatic characters? This is a quick sketch I drew of Katie Brennan, (Marie), Sam Taylor (Louis XVI) and director Amanda Dales during rehearsals last week. I didn’t get Maria A to sign. Apparently her handwriting is atrocious. So if you love food, theatre and a slice of history catch Marie Antoinette, live on 14 November. Check out www.trucvert.co.uk for details.
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