Drawing: Mark Strong, Nicola Walker and Phoebe Fox in A View From The Bridge at The Young Vic

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

The Telegraph’s Charles Spencer gave the Young Vic’s recent production of A View From The Bridge five stars, stating, “this superb production of Arthur Miller’s modern classic, A View From The Bridge is one of the most powerful Miller productions (he) has ever seen.” He was not the only critic to award a five star rating.

The story of Brooklyn longshore man Eddie Carbone’s pride and unhealthy obsession with his niece leads him towards betrayal of his family and his community. Mark Strong, Nicola Walker and Phoebe Fox all excel according to The Guardian.

As Mark put it, “it’s… stark and bare and brutal” on an almost bare stage, similar to a minimalist art gallery. According to Spencer, he plays one of the greatest roles in modern drama, with “raw pain, inarticulate passion and emotional and physical violence. His eyes in Miller’s phrase, really like tunnels, a thousand mile stare of loss, dread and sexual confusion.”

A View From The Bridge finished its season on 7 June 2014.

Drawing: Tom Conti in Twelve Angry Men

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Tom Conti has always been one of my favourite actors. In fact, I’m not alone. In 2002 he was voted Favourite West End Actor in the last 25 years by a theatregoers’ poll. I had the privilege of working with Tom many years ago when he narrated one of my short animated films.

It was great to briefly catch up again last week. He replaced Martin Shaw as Juror No.8 in the extended run of Twelve Angry Men at the Garrick Theatre which finishes this Saturday (14 June 2014). He signed this sketch after an evening performance.

“So, what’s next?” I asked.

“I’m going to complete my book,” Tom replied.

His debut novel The Doctor was described by the Sunday Express as an ideal ‘Hollywood epic’. He will be appearing at the Borders Book Festival on June 25.

Drawing: Mark Heap and Robert Webb in Jeeves and Wooster: Perfect Nonsense

Posted on June 7, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Jeeves & Wooster: Perfect Nonsense continues with a new cast at the Duke of York’s in London.

Robert Webb is the effervescent, aristocratic fool Bertie Wooster, and Mark Heap is his dutiful valet Jeeves, replacing original cast members Stephen Mangan and Matthew Macfadyen. It won the best comedy at this year’s Olivier Awards.

BAFTA winning Robert is one half of the double act Mitchell and Webb, alongside David Mitchell, best known for the successful and long running TV series Peep Show.

Mark is well known to TV audiences as the pompous Dr Alan Statham in Green Wing and a variety of other appearances, including Skins, Hotel Babylon and Miranda.

The Daily Telegraph gave the new cast a four star review, saying, “this production remains as big a hoot as before”. Robert and Mark continue until 28 June.

Drawing: Tom Hiddleston in Coriolanus at The Donmar Warehouse

Posted on June 6, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

I remember meeting Tom Hiddleston at the UK premiere of Joanna Hogg’s Archipelago at The Vue Cinema in Leicester Square. It was in competition for the BFI London Film Festival and a twilight screening, but certainly the dawn of Tom’s career.

Sandwiched between two ‘bigger’ films that attracted large crowds, Archipelago only had a sprinkling of attendees – most of them curious tourists. Tom went unnoticed.

He was already an accomplished stage actor, with two Olivier Award nominations and in fact won one. But I recognised him from the poster and one of the PAs confirmed it “oh yes, that’s Tom Hiddleston, he’s going to be a big star one day. I’ll call him over, if you want his autograph.” So he did and Tom duly obliged. His long moniker took time, even with his speedy style!

We joked that he may have to shorten it when he becomes really famous and having to sign zillions for premiere crowds. Well, the PA was right. He is now a global superstar, thanks to roles such as Loki in Marrel’s Thor series and his signature varies wildly, depending on the moment. But I still have one perfectly formed, every letter (well almost) visible.

Fast forward to the quaint 350 seat Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden. Tom is in the title role of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, directed by Josie Rourke. Seventy performances, eight shows, a week of physically and mentally demanding play. He is bruised, battered and scarred! Critics loved him, “Tom Hiddleston has blazing stellar power… magnificent,” wrote the Independent. His fans adored him.

They gathered by their hundreds, covering both exits in a nightly vigil. Tom would come out under tight security, sign for a few and then quickly leave. I didn’t have a hope. I left a sketch at the theatre, but it was only one piece of mail among thousands for the ‘man of the moment’.

He was nominated for an Olivier Award so I managed to secure a spot at the Royal Opera House, dominated by Tom’s fans. He even signed down my side, but it was bedlam and the sketch went unnoticed in a sea of items wanting his sig, which had reduced to some quick scribble.

Plan C, Canada. I found out he was still shooting Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak at the Pinewood Studios in Toronto. I packaged up the sketch and mailed it, and set about formulating Plan D. To my surprise, it arrived in the post yesterday. Tom had also written his line from the scene (3.2.14) – “Rather say I play the man I am.”

Plan D was shelved.

Drawing: Adrian Scarborough in King Lear at The National Theatre

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Adrian Scarborough is currently playing The Fool in Sam Mendes “magnetic and unorthodox” production of King Lear, in repertory on the vast Olivier stage at the National Theatre in London. His “lovely-melancholy” turn has garnered rave reviews as Lear’s beloved Fool who batters to death in what the Times called “a startling innovation”.

“His death in a bath tub is sudden and shocking, an example of the coin spin between comedy and tragedy that Mendes manages so well,” said critic Tom Wicker.

Equally at home on both stage and screen, Adrian has appeared in films such as The Madness of King George, Vera Drake, The History Boys, Gosford Park, The King’s Speech and Les Miserables. On the smaller screen he has featured in Gavin and Stacey, Upstairs Downstairs and even an episode of Dr Who.

Adrian was nominated for two Olivier in 2011 for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in the National’s Revival of Terence Rattigan’s After the Dance.

King Lear runs until 2 July 2014.

Drawing: Sara Pascoe at the Soho Theatre

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

In spite of thriving at standup, Sara Pascoe says, “I started comedy as a hobby and it still doesn’t seem like a proper job.”

The 32 year old actor, improviser and writer started standup in 2007, “It’s the one place where you are talking to every level of society”.

She now has a TB career on both sides of the Atlantic with appearances on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Stand up for the Week QI (in which she won with a +28 score) and Live at the Apollo as well as the all female Girl Friday on Channel 4, which she co-wrote.

She’s influenced by media personality, body builder and occasional glamour model Jodie Marsh, as well as Winston Churchill. Sara had a three night gig at London’s Soho Theatre last week entitled Sara Pascoe: Sara Pascoe Cs The Truth which The Guardian described as “intelligent silliness and self deprecation to make a near perfect show”. She recognised herself in my sketch after her opening performance and was happy to acknowledge it with my Sharpie.

Drawing: Adrienne Truscott in Asking For It at The Soho Theatre

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

“Irreverent, sacrilegious, foul mouthed and uninhibited” are just some of the words the New York Times used to describe the beloved, brave and bawdy Wau Wau (pronounced Vow Vow) Sisters. Tanya Gagne and Adrienne Truscott have collaborated as the physical comedy duo since 1999 with their unique blend of singing, witty banter, aerial high-jinks and bawdy burlesque usually with costumes, but no clothes!

New Yorker Adreinne has just completed a season of her latest side show Asking For It at the Sohoo Theatre in London. Dressed only from the waist up and ankles down. It won the Edinburgh Comedy Award Panel Prize in 2013 .

The satirical broadside against rape culture and a string of male performers aggressively asserting their right to tell jokes about it was described by The Guardian in its five star review as ‘sophisticated confrontationalism’.

As she states in her Twitter profile “I’m a performer first, and a Lady second”. I met both after last Thursday’s show and one of them signed my sketch, which the other one really liked.

Drawing: Eric Davis is the Red Bastard

Posted on May 31, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Labelled America’s premiere bouffon, Eric Davis is best known for creating the role of Allen Smithee in Cirque du Soleil’s Iris, and for the past ten years, the ‘dangerous comedy’ monster, ‘Red Bastard’. According to his website, Red Bastard’s mission is to charm, disarm, shock and seduce. His target: you!

It’s described as: “no holds barred theatre, demanding to know nothing less than the existential query ‘who the hell do you think you are?'”.

The show is an interactive feast of biting wit, improvisation and physical prowess. Eric based the shape on the Palaeolithic limestone figurine “Venus of Willendorf” and said it “fulfilled the primal, almost religious, ritual function of theatre” as he continually pushes the audiences psychological buttons.

Audiences are warned to be prepared for anything to happen – raw conversations, provocations, traps, rewards and catch 22s. Lines will be crossed, laughs will be had. Eric’s persona signed my sketch at the Pleasance Theatre during his London run earlier this month.

Drawing: Melanie Chisholm in Blood Brothers at the Phoenix Theatre

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Sporty Spice, Mel C, Melanie C or Melanie Jayne Chisholm as her parents called her, has sold more than 12 million records as a solo artist and over 100 million with the Spice Girls. She is second on the list of No.1 singles for a female artist in the UK. She is also the only female to reach No.1 as part of a quartet, a quintet, a duo and a solo.

In 2009 Melanie performed the role of Mrs Johnstone for six months in the musical Blood Brothers by Willy Russell in London’s Phoenix Theatre and was nominated for Best Actress in a musical at the 2010 Olivier Awards. She won a WhatsOnStage Award in 2013 for her portrayal of Mary Magdalen in the UK arena tour of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.

I met Mel at the Phoenix Theatre stage door in December 2009. She was brilliant – bright and bubbly – with everyone and took the time to chat to the gathered admirers.

Drawing: Rhiannon Sommers in The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Rhiannon Sommers played the free spirited fiery protagonist in Sir Arthur Wing Pinero’s The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith in a revival at the Jermyn Street Theatre this year.

Set in Venice in 1895, young widow Agnes Ebbsmith causes controversy when she runs off with the married Lucas Cleeve, a defecting Tory MP and they enter into a ‘compact’ without matrimonial constraints. She was known as ‘Mad Agnes’ a pale ‘witchy woman’ who preached socialism and free love to the working class where English ex-pat community well bred Victorian ladies would fear to tread. She was a vehement critic of all social conventions, especially marriage.

The shaky liaison hits a stumbling block with the arrival of Lucas’s family from London, led by his uncle the dangerous Duke of St Opherts to tempt his nephew back to the Westminster fleshpots. Guardian critic Michael Billington comments on the confrontation, “The best scenes are those where the militant Agnes confronts Lucas’s uncle. they come off well in Abby Wright’s production because Rhiannon Sommers suggests Agnes is more interested in defeating a class rival than holding on to Lucas.”

The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith completed its season on 3 May.