Drawing: Nina Sosanya in Frozen

Posted on March 6, 2018 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Autographed drawing of Nina Sosanya in Frozen at the Theatre Royal Haymarket on London's West End

Nina Sosanya has made a welcome return to the London stage, playing Agnatha, a clinical psychiatrist in the West End revival of Bryon Lavery’s psychological thriller FROZEN, which opened last month for a limited run at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.

The dark and compelling 1998 three-hander with Suzanne Jones and Jason Watkins is not for the faint-hearted, dealing with the abduction and murder of a ten-year old girl. Nina’s character looks at the difference between crimes of evil and crimes of illness. This is a rehearsal sketch that Nina kindly signed for me when she arrived for last Saturday’s matinee.

Drawing: Nina Sosanya, Take 2

Posted on June 1, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Nina Sosanya

Nina Sosanya quickly signed a portrait sketch I drew of her after the final televised performance of James Graham’s THE VOTE on Election night in May 2015. She actually apologised for the hasty sig as she literally signed on the run to catch the cast (which numbered over 50) bus for the final night function.

Nina’s a familiar face on the small screen, appearing in such shows as HUSTLE, VERA, LEWIS, JONATHAN CREEK, DR WHO, SILENT WITNESS and was a regular on the comedy-drama series TEACHERS. She was also part of the all-star cast in the Christmas-themed romantic comedy movie LOVE ACTUALLY.

I decided to try again and redrew the same portrait, adding Nina in character as one the assistants at the fictional polling station and got my opportunity to get a graph and dedication in less chaotic circumstances last month, when Nina returned to the Donmar in Nick Payne’s ELEGY. And here it is.

Nina’s appreciation society Sosanyatoriam will be pleased.

Drawing: Nina Sosanya in The Vote

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

nina sosanya

The Vote at London’s Donmar Warehouse dramatised the frantic last 90 minutes in a polling station in London (a hastily converted primary school gym).

It featured an all star cast of 50 – as The Guardian’s Michael Billington called it, “as many famous names as a charity gala” – and was broadcast live on Election night on More4. Nina Sosanya plays one of the two polling clerks (the other is Catherine Tate)

This is literally a ‘graph on the run and down a dark alley. After the Election Night performance, the cast left for the after party through the back door to an awaiting bus that was parked at the end of an alley way opposite. A dimly lit alley way at that.

Nina was one of the last to leave and the ‘assistants’ were hurrying everyone along. She went to sign my sketch, but was kept kept moving. Plus she was carrying a lot of stuff. So no arms, no light, moving target… and a security person between me and Nina. This was not looking promising. I managed to giver her a pen and tried to keep the drawing at the ‘write’ distance and as still as possible moving at 100mph…. After a brief period of kinetic combining Nina handled me the pen back and said “sorry… it’s not a very good one.” But nevertheless . A true collector will try and get variations of a signature and this was certainly a variation. It allows me to collect another in less trying circumstances.