A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Shakespeare’s tale of mischief and misplaced devotion – is the fourth instalment of Michael Grandage‘s current season of plays in the West End at the Noël Coward Theatre.
Susannah Fielding (Hermia), Katherine Kingsley (Helena), Padraic Delaney (Oberon) and Gavin Fowler (Puck) all signed their respective sketches after Tuesday evening’s performance. The season ends today (16 November 2013)
For our wedding anniversary each year my wife Frankie and I celebrate with a little Shakespeare. Last year we saw Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry in Twelfth Night at the Apollo Theatre. This year the Winters saw A Midsummers Night’s Dream at the Noël Coward Theatre with Sheridan Smith as Titania and David Walliams in the ‘Bottom’ role. I did this quick sketch before hand, but on the anniversary evening Sheridan was “indisposed,” so we didn’t see her on stage.
David was happy to sign after the performance. I went back a week later and Sheridan, as usual was delightful. She loved the drawing and thanked me for taking the time to come back and was pleased to sign it.
Dame Judi Dench – one of the greatest stage and screen actresses of all time, is also one of the best signers. Her most recent stage performance was as Alice in Peter and Alice at the Noël Coward Theatre in London. There was huge demand for her ‘graph and she always obliged – a real trouper!
I did this quick ‘portrait study’ in March 2010 and dropped it into the Rose Theatre in Surrey, where she was playing Titania as Queen Elizabeth I in A Midsummer Night’s Dream – almost 50 years after she first played the role for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
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