Drawing: Keir Charles and Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Mydidae

Posted on March 22, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Mydidae was written to fulfil a specific brief. DryWrite commissioned BAFTA award-winning writer Jack Thorne to create a play set entirely in a fully functioning bathroom. Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Keir Charles play Marian and David – a couple reaching the first anniversary of a shared personal tragedy. A controversial and intimate exploration of a relationship with its different perspectives and conflicting views when loss and pain can mutate into blame and guilt that delivers a brutal jolt.

Mydidae premiered at the Soho Theatre in 2012 before transferring to the Trafalgar Studios in March 2013.

Drawing: Scarlett Johansson

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Scarlett Ingrid Johansson has twice appeared on the Broadway boards. Her debut in Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge garnered her a Tony Award in 2010. A hard act to follow, but follow it she did with another acclaimed stage performance, as Maggie ‘the cat’ in Tennessee Williams 1955 Pulitzer Prize winning classic Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Richard Rodgers Theatre for a 15 week engagement in late 2012.

Scarlett signed my sketch of her in her role as Maggie last night at the UK premiere of Captain America: The Winter Soldiers at London’s Westfield Vue Cinema.

Drawing: Meera Syal in Shirley Valentine at Trafalgar Studios

Posted on March 20, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

British actress,comedian,writer,singer and producer Meera Syal transformed herself into SHIRLEY VALENTINE at London’s Trafalgar Studios in July 2010. Written by Willy Russell,it follows the monologue of a middle aged Liverpool housewife who finds herself talking to walls as she prepares her husband’s egg’n chips,wondering where her life has gone. Critic Peter Brown said her performance was ” totally absorbing..keeping the entire audience rivited throughout.” Meera signed my sketch on 29.7.10 at the stage door.

Drawing: Emily Joyce in Yes Prime Minister at the Gielgud Theatre

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

In 2010 Emily Joyce appeared as the Prime Minister’s special policy advisor, Claire Sutton in Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn’s stage version of Yes, Prime Minister. The production premiered at the Chichester Festival in May before transferring to the Gielgud Theatre in the West End in the autumn. Emily signed my biro sketch in January 2011 at the theatre’s stage door.

Drawing: Tara Fitzgerald

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Another quick sketch of British actress Tara Fitzgerald – this time in fine black biro. Since her first stage role opposite the late, great Peter O’Toole in Our Song in 1992 at the Apollo, she has divided her career between screen and stage.

Tara signed this drawing during The Misanthrope season at the Comedy Theatre on Christmas Eve in 2009

Drawing: Simon Callow in Being Shakespeare

Posted on March 16, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

One of Britain’s finest actors, Simon Callow brought his acclaimed one-man show Being Shakespeare back to London for a strictly limited season at the Harold Pinter theatre. Written by Jonathan Bate and directed by Tom Cairns, the show ran for 23 performances, finishing last night (15 March 2014).

The production returned following two successful runs in the West End. The Guardian’s Michael Billington described it as “a memorably multidimensional picture of Shakespeare steeped in scholarship and love”. Simon brings to life the Bard’s unforgettable characters and the real man behind the legend.

2014 marks the 450th anniversary of the birth of the world’s greatest playwright.

Drawing: Natalie Casey in 9 to 5

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Natalie Casey was three when she recorded the single ‘Chick, Chick, Chick’, which reached number 72 on the UK charts, making her the youngest person to do so. She appeared on the BBC and asked Boy George to take her to the toilet!

But, Natalie is probably better known for her long-running roles in the TV series Hollyoaks (from 1995-2000) and playing Donna Henshaw in Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps (2001-2011).

I met Natalie at Wyndham’s Theatre in 2012 after a performance in the revival of Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party. She was really friendly and great to talk to. She signed this sketch at The Mayflower Theatre in Southampton during the UK Tour of Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 in May last year.

Drawing: Clare Higgins in The Fever at The Royal Court Theatre

Posted on March 13, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Clare Higgins is one of Britain’s great stage actresses, winning three Olivier Awards.

This sketch is from her role in Wallace Shawn’s The Fever at the Royal Court Theatre in the Spring of 2009. She signed it for me at the National Theatre stage door in early 2011 where she was playing Gertrude, “a dipsomaniac in four inch heels” opposite Rory Kinnear‘s Hamlet.

Clare returns to the London stage as a recovering alcoholic in Jon Robin Baitz’s Other Desert Cities with Sinead Cusack which is currently in previews at the Old Vic

Drawing: Jennifer Tilly

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Jennifer Tilly divides her time between acting and playing professional poker. Winning a number of awards in both careers. She received an Academy Award nomination in 1994 for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Bullets Over Broadway.

Jennifer signed this sketch at the Royal Court Theatre in London in June 2009 during her run in Grasses of a Thousand Colours.

Drawing: Miranda Raison

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Here’s another quick sketch of one of my fave actresses, Miranda Raison. Most may know her as Jo Portman in the British TV series Spooks, she is also in the third series of the BBC legal drama Silk. Miranda has just finished the theatrical version of Strangers on a Train at the Gielgud Theatre in London’s Shaftesbury Ave.

When not gracing the screens or treading the boards, Miranda walks the fairways and greens as a keen and very able golfer. She happily signed my drawing at the Donmar Warehouse during the season of The Physicists: A Comedy in Two Acts directed by Josie Rourke in July 2012