Drawing: Tanya Moodie in Joanne

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Tanya Moodie

Olivier-nominated, Canadian-born British actress Tanya Moodie has just completed her solo run in Joanne at London’s Soho Theatre.

Joanne is never seen. She is defined by her absence and elusiveness, existing through the eyes of others, “the sort of troubled, slippery needy person it’s all too easy to ignore”.

Stella, Grace, Alice, Kath and Becky are four characters who come into contact with Joanne during the crucial 24 hour period after her release from prison plus a teacher who remembers the wrong decisions her pupil made.

Five monologues from five different dramatists – Deborah Bruce, Theresa Ikoko, Laura Lomas, Chino Odimba and Ursula Rani – with Tanya performing all roles in a powerful one hour production, commissioned by Clean Break who have, for 36 years been doing important work with women in prisons and at risk.

Critics are unanimous in their response. The Independent’s Paul Taylor summed up the reviews, “Tanya Moodie is terrific in this powerful collaboration”.

Tanya was very generous with her compliments about my drawing. She tweeted it, thanking me and returned it with a kind note. From time to time I receive thank you notes, which is not expected, but always gratefully received. One of the main reasons for doing this blog is to share with others. Many would ask “can we see more of your work” and this the best medium to do just that!

Tanya Moodie Postcard

Drawing: Laura Rogers and Sally Messham in Tipping The Velvet

Posted on November 5, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Tipping The Velvet

The Dictionary of Vulgar Tongue is not a reference source I turn to often, especially the original 1811 edition. In fact, this is my first foray into such an esteemed piece of literature. I did so to look up the meaning, via google, since I don’t happen to own a copy, of the term, ‘Tipping the velvet’. It’s a Victorian euphemism for ‘cunnilingus’, oral sex in layman’s terms. It’s also the title for Sara Waters’ audacious bestselling debut novel, which became a TV series and now a new stage adaption by Laura Wade.

Directed by Lyndsey Turner, Tipping The Velvet completed it’s World Premiere at London’s Lyric Hammersmith theatre this month and is currently at the Lyceum in Edinburgh as part of the theatre’s 50th Anniversary season. The ‘Tipping’ tale is a Victorian coming of age story, when young Kentish girl and theatre-obsessed Nancy Astley falls in love with male impersonator Kitty Butler and follows her to London, “where unimaginable adventures await.” The lovers become a fully-trousered double-act in the West End, but as the narrator suggests, “you might not get the ending you paid for…but you’ll leave grossly entertained nevertheless.” Needless to say the publicity material does have the warning, ‘This show contains scenes of a sexual nature.’

Making her professional debut in the role of the ‘giddy with desire and hungry for experience’ Nan is Sally Messham and Laura Rogers plays Kitty. Both received critical plaudits and both kindly signed and returned my sketch, which contains a scene of an about to happen sexual nature.

Drawing: Iana Salenko, Prima Ballerina

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Iana Salenko

I really enjoy drawing dancers.The lines become more energetic and it certainly gives the 4B pencil are good workout. Ballet adds grace to the rendering. My latest sketch is Ukrainian prima ballerina Iana Salenko, Principal with the Staatsballet Berlin and Guest Artist with the Royal Ballet since performing the role of Kitiri in Carlo Acosta’s Don Quixote in 2013. She returns to Covent Garden this month as Juliet in Kenneth MacMillian’s groundbreaking production of Romeo and Juliet. First staged at the Royal Opera House in 1965, it has been at the heart of Royal Ballet’s repertory ever since. On opening night fifty years ago, Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn performed the title roles, receiving a rapturous reception with 43 curtain calls during 40 minutes of applause.

Iana will also join Principal Steven McRae this month in Tchaikovsky Pas de deus and The Nutcracker over the Christmas season. I was very pleased to receive my sketch, signed by Iana after I left it at the Opera House.

Drawing: Number 1, The Plaza at The Soho Theatre

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

1 The Plaza

Shit happens… particularly at Number 1, The Plaza, a luxury London apartment and the title of an unconventional 75 minute performance by experimental theatre duo Lucy McCormick and Jennifer Pick which ran at the Soho Theatre this spring. The pair playing narcissistic drama queens let it all hang out. It’s excrement entertainment, literally and metaphorically.

A boundary-pushing, boozy night of cabaret, live art and stand-up, promoted as a “messy musical trash-fest exploring the relationship between the two women.” Jen and Lucy perform numbers from shows such as Wicked and Blood Brothers smeared in human waste and share too much information and other stuff. It gives a whole new meaning to Dirty Dancing.

Their production company is called Getinthebackofthevan. Need I say more. According to director Hester Chillingworth, Number 1 examines the ‘pornification’ of everyday life, a no holds-barred examination of the kind of shit that we do day to day, surrounded in ‘number 2’s. The company are known for occupying and championing the borders of things, sitting at the crossroads between a number of genres.

Critic Emma Brady described it as “a theatre experience like no other.”

For the alarmed, don’t be. The fake faeces is a mixture of gingerbread cake, chocolate and peanut butter. Ask a front row member of their audience. I was just pleased they used a conventional pen to sign my sketch… I think.

Drawing: Bus King Theatre

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

bus king theatre

Travelling home on the Tube the other day, amilessly flicking through the Evening Standard I was captivated by an article entitled Fare Play-Husband and Wife Team Turn Rusting Double Decker Bus Into Puppet Theatre. Puppeters are very cool and Cesare and Athena Maschi looked like the coolist. I have always been fascinated with puppertry, especially marionettes, growing up on a diet of Gerry Anderson’s ‘Supermarionation’ TV shows such as Thunderbirds and Stingray. Some therapists call it ‘Pinocchio envy.’ The Bus King Theatre is stationed this week at the Spitalfields Market near London’s Liverpool Station for the school half-term break. They are performing three shows a day in the ‘lovingly re-purposed’ Routemaster bus, with the lower deck converted into a theatre for 25-30 people and the upper for puppetry workshops. The Maschi’s spent three years looking for the ‘perfect’ bus, which they eventually found in a friend’s field. ‘I love buses and had this romantic idea of owning one and when you go inside it is a theatre,” Athena told the reporter. I had always threatened to draw puppeters before, but it was a theatrical art that had escaped the visual interrogation of my 4B pencil. I was struck by a sudden urge of ‘superspontanioussketching’ and quicky drew this based on the pics that accompioned the article, then hiked it to Spitalfields for the sig-nification.

As I imagined Cesare and Athena were supercool. It’s not everyday someone just rocks up asking you to sign their scribble, but they took it in their stride. Marionettist’s are like that. This sketch is now signed by the hands that pull the strings, giving life to so many puppet persons. Check them out at http://www.buskingtheatre.London, or go see them live when the bus stops near you.

Drawing: Daniel Craig in A Steady Rain

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Daniel craig

Becoming the sixth actor to play Ian Fleming’s fictional British secret agent James Bond has made him a household name, but Daniel Craig actually started his career ‘treading the boards’, after graduating from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1991. His first film role was in fact 007 in the 2006 instalment, Casino Royale.He returned to the stage in 2009, debuting on Broadway in A Steady Rain alongside fellow A-Lister Hugh Jackman at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre or Theater as they like to spell it. The 12 week engagement about two Chicago policemen who inadvertently return a Vietnamese boy to a cannibalistic serial killer believing him to be his uncle was a critical and commercial success. TIME magazine placed the production in it’s Top 10 plays of that year, ranking it second. He is due to play Iago in Othello next year.

On a somewhat bigger stage was the World Premiere of the latest Bond movie, Spectre, at London’s Royal Albert Hall, attended by all the cast, creatives and their HRH’s Wills, Kate and Harry. As perms go this is about as big as it gets. Daniel would be attending naturally, so it presented a chance for me to get this sketch of him and Hugh in A Steady Rain graphed. The event was on Sunday evening. I was in the area the day before and found out that they were making a list for the wristbands. I put my name on it in the 34th position…not a good one if you’re a Formula One driver, but excellent for taking front row at a premiere. However…there’s always an ‘however’ at these things, when I returned the next day, an hour before I was told to, the bands had all been dispensed, including my number 34. I won’t go into the ‘discussions’ that followed. In the end I was given number 0500…not a number that filled me with confidence to get 007’s sig on my sketch. As you can imagine the red carpet for this was very long. The situation did eliminate the dilemma of where to stand. I got told where to go. I managed to secure a place second row on the grid near the paps. Daniel has always thought of his portrayal of Bond as an ‘anti-hero’. “Am I a good guy,or just a bad guy who works for a good side?” he once said. I guess most assassins face this question all the time. However, on a mild Autumnal night he was definitely a good guy and on the right side..the side I was on! Actually he did both sides as you would expect a spy to do. I asked him if he could dedicate it ‘to Mark’ for me, and he penned,’M’, which as Bond specialists know is the also the code name for his boss in MI16. After Daniel signed he suddenly realised and said, “Oh sorry that’s over Hugh” I assured him it was fine, Hugh will do the same over you, one day. Not a bad outcome in the end for 0500.

Drawing: Frances Barber

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

francis barber

Picasso had his ‘Blue’ period, I had my ‘black Bic biro’ one. The fine point version is very versatile, building up layers with cross-hatching, or in my case ‘scribble-hatching’. This drawing of the alluring English actress Frances Barber and her enticing evening gloves is an example. However, the medium is not always ideal for rendering certain textures such as black latex with it defining ‘shimmers’, so it turned into more of a doodling exercise emptying the ink of one ballpoint overworking the gloves. It worked for her hair though. Actually I found out that Frances’s most treasured possession is a piece of artwork, a painting of her adored bulldog Smack, who she had for 11 years. While not in the same revered class, she didn’t mind mind signing my sketch of the doodled-fur gloves for me during her run in Les Parents Terribles at London’s Trafalgar Studios in 2010.

Drawing: Alessandra Ferri, Prima Ballerina Assoluta

Posted on October 22, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

alessandra ferri

Italian dancer Alessandra Ferri is a prima ballerina assoluta.To share my expanding knowledge on dance, that is a title awarded to the most notable female dancers. It is a rare honour, reserved only for the most exceptional artists of their generation. The ‘hauntingly beautiful’ Alessandra began her climb to the pinnacle of ballet when she joined The Royal Ballet at the age of 15. Four years later she became one of its youngest Principal dancers. A small staue of her as Juliet stands in the Royal ballet school in her honour. After a six-year sabbatical, she returned, at the age of 52, to her Covent Garden roots to perform a ‘mesmerising comeback’ in Wayne Mc Gregor’s Woolf Works. Only a handful of ballerinas have danced in their 50’s. The Royal Ballet said Alessandra is the oldest to take a leading role, “en pointe and of this physicality” since the legendary Margot Fonteyn, who danced until she was sixty. Early this month the double Olivier Award winner joined one of the stars of American ballet, Argentine Herman Cornego in Martha Clarke’s adaption of Colette’s obsessive love story Cheri in the Royal Opera’s Linbury Studio. The Observer’s dance critic Luke Jennings was full of admiration, concluding his review with ‘Cheri is about the cruelty of time; Ferri’s career tells another, happier story,”

This is one of two sketches I drew-the other was Alessandra and Herman rehearsing Cheri.They signed for me after the final performance.

Drawing: Cate Blanchett in Big and Small

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Cate Blanchett

Listed amongst one of Cate Blanchett’s trivia pages is ‘Enjoys making lists and crossing items off as she accomplishes them.’ This sketch has been on my list to get signed by the two-time Academy award winner since she performed Big and Little (Gross ind Klein) at the Barbican in April 2012. It probably wasn’t on Cates. When it was first staged in London in 1983, Botho Strauss’s surreal play was meet with boos and walkouts. Critics called the three hour long play a ‘punishing’ piece of avant-garde theatre. This new English adaption by Martin Crimp had a much better reception this time round. The Guardian’s Michael Billington wrote, “one of the most dazzling, uninhibited performances I’ve ever seen, suggests a garrulous angel who doesn’t quite belong to earth.”

Anyway back to lists. As mentioned, since the spring of 2012 I have tried to get this drawing signed. In fact this is part of a trilogy-a concept familiar to Cate and her role in certain Peter Jackson Middle Earth blockbusters. I drew 3 sketches based on Big and Small. One I left at the theatre and two I kept in case our paths should cross. The theatre triplet has not reappeared. I’m not sure why I had drawn two others and the reason has never bothered to clarify itself. Opportunities have presented themselves over the past three years, but that’s all they’ve done. This year Cate was to be presented with the BFI Fellowship at the London Film Festival. Plus,she was attending two screenings. A trilogy of chances to get a sketch signed. First one came and went. The second, at the Truth prem worked. I didn’t ask if it was on her list, but I can now cross it off mine.

Drawing: Martin Freeman as Richard III

Posted on October 20, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

martin freeman richard lll

Martin Freeman made his Shakespearean debut on the London stage, transforming from a friendly Hobbit to a villainous sovereign in Jamie Lloyd’s vigorous, contemporary production of Richard III at the Trafalgar Studios last summer. ‘Ricardian’s’, as the medieval monarch’s modern-day followers are called, believe in the revisionists version of the last English King to fall in battle, which is in sharp contrast to the figure portrayed in the Bard’s version. Since supposedly finding his remains under a Council car park in Leicester and the pomp and pageantry surrounding the reburial, 529 and a half years after his demise, the stocks of the last Plantagenet ruler have risen appreciably. Archaeologists and academics have reconstructed the face of the skull and said he had much kinder features, therefore he couldn’t have been a tyrant. I kid you not.That’s of course if the car park bones are really Richards. Many believe they are not. So I guess casting Bilbo Baggins with his genial guise as the bloodthirsty antagonist ‘slashing his way through the family tree en route to the throne’ allowed for some options if required. A Tolkien gesture one could say. In the end, Martin played it as Wills intended (albeit shorter for modern attention spans) and played it well during the limited three month run.

I drew this sketch of Martin in the royal role, but never actually joined the hordes at the post-performance rituals. It stayed, along with others in my ‘pending’ folder, ready to be activated and penned when future opportunities warranted. One such moment came a few months ago as he left the Donmar Warehouse as an audience member and he stopped to sign for a small horde. This is when I realised I should have revised my filing system in the said pending folder to allow me to find the necessary item within the restricted timeframe. I could have got him to sign Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Robert De Niro, or even Arnold Schwarzenegger’s sketches though. It was only after he had left that I found his drawing. On Saturday evening he attended the BFI London Film Festival Awards. I had already got Cate earlier at the Truth premiere, so that eliminated one obstacle in my file. Plus I had the Richard III ready and when he emerged at a quarter past the witching hour with his agreeable face on, I got it graphed.