Sketch: Simon Russell Beale in King Lear at The National Theatre

Posted on July 1, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

SImon Russell Beale

Simon Russell Beale is not only a great stage actor and an extremely pleasant chap to meet, he’s a brilliant subject to draw. Hence the frequency of my sketches of the man considered by many to be the best actor of his generation. This is in fact my second study of Simon as KING LEAR when he took to the vast Olivier stage at the National last Autumn in the exceptional Sam Mendes-directed production. This was the seventh Shakespearian collaboration for the actor-director combination. Jasper Kees commented in his article for The Telegraph that when classical actors play HAMLET , a clock starts ticking down to his LEAR with a decent hiatus in between. He lists such notables as Ian McKellen, with a 36 year gap, 32 for Jonathan Pryce and 31 for Derek Jacobi. For 52 year-old Simon it was 14 years and if it wasn’t for Sam’s commitment to SKYFALL and CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY the gap would have been a lot less. however that hypothesis flies out the window when it was revealled that this is not Simon’s first LEAR. Oh no, he played the tragic monarch as a 17 year-old while still at Clifton College, so it’s a 35 year gap between LEARs for him, punctuated with a HAMLET.

That aside, I caught up with Simon to sign my sketch at the Donmar Warehouse after a Saturday evenings performance of TEMPLE in which he currently plays the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in Steve Water’s new play inspired by the London Occupy Movement and the events surrounding the hallowed venue in October 2011. As usual he was very gracious and happily signed this version of LEAR, remembering the zillions of others he had also graphed.

Sketch: Timothy West as King Lear

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Timothy West

Seasoned British actor Timothy West, noted for his great power and command on the classical stage, has played King Lear three times. The latest was in 2003 for English Touring Theatre on a UK tour and at the Old Vic in London.

The Stephen Unwin directed production toured for three months in autumn 2002 to great acclaim, winning West a Manchester Evening News Award for Best Actor. His moving portrayal of the fallen king at the Old Vic received rave reviews and bought in the crowds, extending the season less than a week after the play opened.

Timothy has played other roles in the Shakespearean masterpiece, including Gloucester to Ian Holm’s moanch ain the National Theatre’s 1997 production, directed by Richard Eyre, that was also filmed for the BBC.

I caught up with Timothy as he left the Donmar Warehouse last night, where he is part of a huge ensemble cast for Josie Rourke‘s The Vote. I showed him my sketch of him as Lear asking him if he wouldn’t mind signing it, and he smiled, saying, of course and duly ‘graphed it.

Drawing: John Lithgow in The Magistrate at the National Theatre

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

I finally got the brilliant John Lithgow to sign a sketch for me.

The New York-born 69 year-old has appeared in more than 30 films, with two Oscar nominations and an equally impressive television list that includes the Emmy-award winning 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN and DEXTER.

John’s distinguished stage career has spanned over four decades on both sides of the Atlantic. His 1973 Broadway debut in David Storey’s THE CHANGING ROOM earned him the Tony and Drama Desk Awards. He won his second Tony for his portrayal of J.J Hunsecker in the Broadway adaption of the 1957 film SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS in 2002.

During the winter of 2012/13 John crossed the ditch to appear on the London stage as the title character, police magistrate Aeneas Posket in the National Theatre’s revival of Arthur Pinero’s THE MAGISTRATE. I was lucky enough to catch a saturday matinee.

The following summer he retuned to New York and the Delacorte stage in Central Park’s Public Theatre’s production of KING LEAR, where he last appeared in 1975 in the role of Laertes in HAMLET. John listed playing ‘Lear’ at the top of his bucket list..”so there’s an empty space there now.” he quipped.

When asked what he disliked most about his appearance, John replied, “I have a love/hate relationship with my height-I am 6 foot 4 inches.”

John signed this sketch depicting his stage appearances in THE MAGISTRATE and KING LEAR at the John Golden Theatre in New York where he has just finished the limited season of Edward Albee’s A DELICATE BALANCE alongside Glenn Close. He actually dedicated it ‘To Mark’,but my letter must have been under the drawing because the inscription was written on the top of it with the most important sig on the sketch.

Sketch: Anna Maxwell Martin in King Lear at The National Theatre

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Sam Mendes astonishing and absorbing production of King Lear at London’s National Theatre last summer included Anna Maxwell Martin playing the mad King’s eldest daughter with Simon Russell Beale in title role.

Lloyd Evans in The Spectator summed up the critics’ reviews, “There are outstanding performances from Anna Maxwell Martin, whose Regan is a hysterical sex freak turned on by torture.”

Anna has won two BAFTA awards, the first for her portrayal of Esther Summerson, the central character in the 2005 BBC adaption of Charles Dicken’s Bleak House. Her second was for playing ‘N’, a long-term mentally ill patient in Poppy Shakespeare three years later.

She was also nominated in 2011 for her role as Sarah Burton in South Riding.

Drawing: Kate Fleetwood in King Lear and Macbeth

Posted on December 6, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

British actress Kate Fleetwood will be well known to cinema audiences from her roles in films such as Harry Potter, Les Misérables and Philomena, but it’s her stage work that has won her the most plaudits.

She made her Broadway debut opposite Patrick Stewart in the critically lauded Chichester Festival Theatre production of Macbeth in 2008. Her ferocious and much younger ‘trophy wife’ portrayal of Lady Macbeth won wide acclaim and a Tony Award nomination. In 2012 Kate was also nominated for the Olivier for her performance as Julie in the musical London Road at the National Theatre in London.

Earlier this year she played the power hungry eldest daughter in Sam Mendes’ production of King Lear also at the National. Lloyd Evans in The Spectator described her, “outstanding performance” as a,”slinky, ice cold Goneril glides around like Wallis Simpson looking for a playboy to chew up and spit out”.

This montage sketch, kindly signed and dedicated, captures Kate in both roles.

Drawing: Edward Petherbridge in My Perfect Mind at The Young Vic Theatre

Posted on September 27, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

The Guardian labelled the two man show My Perfect Mind, “an exquisite piece of tomfoolery”. Performed by Paul Hunter and Olivier Award winner Edward Petherbridge, it has just finished a four week run at London’s Young Vic as part of a UK tour. It is inspired by Edward’s experience of not playing Lear.

In 2007, Edward travelled to Wellington in New Zealand to fulfil his long cherished ambition to play Shakespeare’s King Lear. Two days into rehearsal he suffered a stroke that left him partially paralysed. Remarkably, he was still able to remember every world of the mad monarch.

It’s played on a disorientating tilted stage in a world that’s off kilter and difficult to physically negotiate. The title is from Lear’s most chilling line “I fear I am not in my perfect mind”. It is a very funny piece mixed with the fact that we are all heading, like Lear, towards our own private struggle sot maintain perfect mind.

It’s a show that invokes the ghosts of Petherbridge’s childhood, the ghosts of all those actors who have played Lear and the ghost of the performance that Edward never got to give.

Paul plays a variety of characters who have figured in Petherbridge’s life, including Lord Olivier, the actor’s mother (herself a stroke victim) and the Fool to his Lear. He signed my sketch going in, but I missed Edward. Waiting at the lower stage door, (the Young Vic has at least two) I missed him again after the performance. He and left via the upper stage door since the play is performed in the upper auditorium. Paul told me he was eating at an Italian restaurant over the road and assured me he wouldn’t mind the intrusion.

It’s not my usual practice, stalking people when they are eating, but, more in my left mind I did. I apologised. “You expected the entrée, not a fool with a drawing”. He graciously signed it, while I kept apologising to him and his companions.

Tim Walker in his five star review in The Telegraph said of Edward, “… has acquired a tremendous sense of majesty that makes him a magnetic stage presence: I sincerely hope he may yet get to play Lear and deliver the lines that remain so stubbornly in his head”…. or at least finish his post-show Italian dinner without interruption by a theatrical scribbler.

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: Olivia Vinall in King Lear at the National Theatre

Posted on March 25, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

One of the brightest new stars shining on the London stage is 25 year old Olivia Vinall. Less than four years after graduating from Drama Studio London she has played three of Shakespeare’s iconic female roles – a path probably predicted in the stars given she was named after one of the Bard’s other famous females – Olivia in Twelfth Night.

Presently portraying Cordelia in the National Theatre’s King Lear, opposite the legendary Simon Russell Beale, she was Desdemona in Othello (also at the National) with Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet at the Leicester Square Theatre. Nominated for both an Evening Standard Theatre Award and a WhatsOnStage Award for her role as the Venetian beauty who tragically elopes with the older Othello.

Olivia also features in the National’s 50 Years On Stage Celebration with the current theatrical greats. I had the pleasure of meeting the delightful thespian after her Saturday afternoon performance, when she signed this sketch.

Drawing: Simon Russell Beale in King Lear at The National Theatre

Posted on March 24, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

I’m constantly drawn to Simon Russell Beale. I’ve sketched him on a number of occasions and will continue to do so. He’s an artist’s dream with such an expressive, animated face. He’s currently performing on the vast Olivier stage at the National Theatre in Shakespeare’s King Lear, directed once again by Sam Mendes.

“Simon’s great art is that he can take a role and turn it until it catches the light. Sometimes he only turns it tow degrees and bang,” Sam is quoted as saying.

It renews a long creative partnership between the two, beginning at the RSC in 1990 with Troilus and Cressida. It has included all the Bard’s greatest roles, but Lear is possibly the big one. It is the seventh Shakespeare play on which Simon has worked with Sam.

He’s an unorthodox Lear as a Stalinesque tyrant, dividing his Kingdom amongst his three daughters. It’s been in the frame for the best part of a decade and finally realised in this extraordinary epic. It’s not Simon’s first Lear, however. He did perform the role as a 17 year old schoolboy at Clifton College.

Simon signed this sketch after the Saturday performance. There are so many other renderings waiting in the wings, given the vast emotional arc he uses to portray the tragic monarch. Watch this space.