Drawing: Timothy Spall, Daniel Mays and George MacKay in The Caretaker

Posted on April 14, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

The Caretaker

When it premiered in 1960, Harold Pinter’s first big hit, THE CARETAKER changed the face of modern theatre. The psychological study of the confluence of power, allegiance, innocence and corruption among two brothers, Aston and Mick and the homeless hobo Davis. The Old Vic’s latest revival, directed by Matthew Warchus stars Timothy Spall, who specialises in characters outside the social norms He plays Davis, the classic Pinter outsider,disruptive, insistent, menacing yet pathetic. Daniel Mays is the kindly Aston and George MacKay portrays the brutal brother Mick, who exposes Davis as an ‘Artful Dodger.’

I caught up with Daniel and George during a passing shower, under the protection of a cheap umbrella at the stage door and Timothy a week later in drier conditions. All three were happy to sign this sketch.

Drawing: Kit Harington in Doctor Faustus

Posted on April 13, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Kit Harington

Successful Elizabethan playwright and Shakespeare’s contemporary Christopher Marlowe is buried in an unmarked grave not far from where I reside, in the churchyard of St Nicholas, Deptford. It was on May 18, 1593 that Marlowe was arrested for blasphemy. Ten days later his mysterious early death was reported after being knifed in a local tavern. He was only 29.

One of his most renowned plays was ‘The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus’, commonly referred to simply DOCTOR FAUSTUS, based on the German ‘Faustbuch’. The story of an embittered academic, frustrated with the futility of religion and desperate for a deeper understanding of the universe, he risks everything to conjure up a meeting with the demon Mephistophilis, asking him to make a deal with the devil and selling his soul in return for the ability to perform absolutely anything including the power to perform black magic. References to ‘The Devil’s Pact’ go back as far as the 4th Century, but Marlowe’s hero differs in that his protagonist is unable to repent in order to have the pact annulled.

Playing the title role in Jamie Lloyd’s latest revival at the Duke of York’s theatre is another 29 year-old Christopher… Christopher Catesby Harington, commonly known as Kit, making his first return to the London boards since playing Albert in the National Theatre’s WAR HORSE. As the new series of HBO’s GAME OF THRONES is about to screen, he confirmed that his character, Jon Snow, was killed off and dies in the snow at the hands of his own men in the series 5 finale. “I do appear in the new series, but as a corpse,” he revealed to the NY Daily News. “It’s my best work”, he joked.

The show’s massive fan base has descended upon the theatre in droves. I joined the frenzied gathering at the end of the stage door alleyway on Saturday night, held out this quick drawing of Kit as Faustus and he managed to sign it for me, before barriers were installed and some decorum prevailed… and Kit left.

Drawing: Glenn Close in Sunset Boulevard

Posted on April 12, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Twenty years on, Glen Close reprises her Tony Award-winning role as the deluded screen star Norma Desmond and makes her much-anticipated West End debut in Lonny Price’s ‘semi-staged’ production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s SUNSET BOULEVARD for it’s five week run at the London Coliseum. Based on the classic Academy Award-winning 1950 noir film, stylised on screen as SUNSET BLVD., written and directed by Billy Wilder, starring Gloria Swanson, the black comedy is cited as one of the greats of American cinema.

Lloyd Webber’s musical version with book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton premiered at London’s Aldephi Theatre in 1993 with Patti Lupone in the lead role before making it’s Broadway debut a year later with Glenn Close playing the fading star of the silent era living in the past in her decaying mansion on the fabled Los Angeles street.

Norma Desmond’s immortal line at the end “And now, Mr DeMille I am ready for my close-up,” has that little bit more significance with Ms Close delivering it.

Fans packed the stage door barriers on Saturday evening and surrounded the car, waiting for her exit. I managed to squeeze into a spot over the bonnet and after she had signed for the barrier areas, stood on the vehicle’s runner board and graphed some items on the roof of the car, including my sketch, which I slide across, strategically stopping in front of the star’s skedaddling sharpie. It’s a bit scrawly but it’s Glenn’s and it’s in person and it captures the moment perfectly.

Drawing: Timothy Spall in Mr Turner

Posted on April 11, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Timothy Spall

Timothy Spall won a number of International awards including Best Actor at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, for his performance as the eccentric landscape painter J.M.W. Turner in Mike Leigh’s celebrated biographical drama MR. TURNER. Inexplicably, he missed out on Oscar and BAFTA noms.

When I saw the images from The film and Timothy’s performance I just had to capture that face and his portrayal with my trusty 4B lead. The controversial British Romanticist was renowned for his work in oils, but he was one of the greatest masters of British watercolour painting, elevating the landscape genre to an eminence rivalling history painting.

Known as ‘the painter of light’, Turner was considered a Romantic preface to Impressionism, my favourite period. As homage to this I have taken the rare turn of added a ‘dusting’ of sunset hues with my less trusty coloured pencils to my usual monochromatic studies.

After appearing over the past two decades in film roles such as ‘Wormtail’ in the HARRY POTTER series and Winston Churchill in THE KING’S SPEECH, Timothy returned to the stage as the rugged tramp Davies in Harold Pinter’s THE CARETAKER at London’s Old Vic. I meet one of Britain’s best-loved and most-talented character actors at the stage door on Saturday prior to the matinee and he happily signed this sketch for me.

Drawing: Christopher Wheeldon

Posted on April 9, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Christopher Wheeldon

Internationally renowned contemporary ballet choreographer Christopher Wheeldon joined the Royal Ballet as a seventeen year old in 1991 and in that same year won the Gold Medal at the Prix de Lausanne competition. He then moved to the Big Apple to join the New York Ballet where he became a soloist in 1998. Three years later he became the Company’s residential choreographer.

He became the first Englishman to be invited to create a new work for the prestigious Bolshoi Ballet and earlier this year was honoured with an OBE by the Queen.

Currently the Royal Ballet’s Artistic Associate, Chris is a familiar face at Covent Garden, especially recently, with a mixed programme celebrating his career. The three works included AFTER THE RAIN, WITHIN THE GOLDEN HOUR and the World Premiere of STRAPLESS. Next week his three-act adaption of THE WINTER’S TALE, Shakespeare’s tale of love, loss and reconciliation begins a two month season.

I left this sketch at the ROH in February and it returned from New York a week later signed and dedicated.

Drawing: Jena Friedman in American C*nt

Posted on April 8, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Jena Friedman

American stand-up comedian, writer and filmmaker Jena Friedman returned to the UK last month with her critically acclaimed solo show AMERICAN C*UNT (her asterisk), which premiered last year at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Her work has been published in Time, Newsweek, The Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, TimeOut New York and was part of the writing team for THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN. In 2010 the New York Times issued a ‘cease and desis’ letter to her for parodying their Wedding videos, which went on to be a very successful web series entitled TED AND GRACE.

AMERICAN C*NT is described as a ‘dark, edgy, spiky, fiercely and unapologetically political and liberal (more or less) look at the state of modern America, including Bill Cosby, Ebola, Donald Trump and Caitlyn Jenner – (The best way to age gracefully as a woman is to be born a man).”

Included on her website menu is a ‘How to stalk me’ option, but I preferred the old-fashioned approach and turn up at the theatre with a sketch.

Drawing: Sir David Attenborough

Posted on April 7, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

David Attenborough

Naturalist Sir David Attenborough is one of my favourite broadcasters. In fact he’s considered by most as ‘the greatest broadcaster of our time’. The 89-year-old has also been called one of Britain’s ‘living treasures,’ a term Sir David does not like.

“My shoes are very unfashionable shoes. I’m the last in a particular style that was established 30 years ago. People make different kinds of programmes now. I don’t think anyone’s trying to fill my shoes” he once said. Which is true, both literally and figuratively. He is one of a kind. The only person to win BAFTAs for programmes in each format – black and white, colour, HD and 3D. among a gazillion accolades, including 32 honorary degrees.

Although I have had the pleasure of meeting him on a couple of occasions, I actually sent this sketch of Sir David to his production company in Surrey and he immediately returned it, signed.

Drawing: Lady Rizo at the Soho Theatre

Posted on April 6, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Lady Rizo

‘New York City’s prized cabaret superstar’, comedian and chanteuse (that’s a female singer of popular songs) Amelia Zirin-Brown, alias Lady Rizo returned to London’s Soho Theatre last month for a sell-out season of her new show MULTIPlIED, exploring how her newfound fecundity and parenthood fitted in with a glamorous show-pony, gypsy lifestyle.

Lady R modus operandi is ripping apart carefully chosen pop songs and her own stirring originals. In 2005 she co-created the cult caburlesque spectacular LADY RIZO AND THE ASSETTES and five years later won a Grammy Award, followed by the TimeOut and Soho Theatre Cabaret Award at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe.

I dropped this sketch off at the Soho and she returned signed and dedicated it for me.

Drawing: Kate Fleetwood

Posted on April 5, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Kate Fleetwood

I finally got to meet the wonderfully versatile British actress Kate Fleetwood on Saturday as she arrived at London’s latest fashionable pop-up theatre Found 111 in Charing Cross Road for the matinee performance of Tracy Letts’ BUG in which she plays the lonely waitress Agnes opposite James Norton. She remembered my other drawing with affection, which she signed for me after I left it at the National when she played Goneril in KING LEAR in 2014.

Evening Standard critic Fiona described her ” beguiling feline face and wonderfully pronounced cheekbones and startling oval eyes” in her interview with Kate this month.All the more reason to draw her.

Raised in the Stratford-upon-Avon area, Kate joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and her career defining role was one of the Bard’s most famous role as Lady M in the Chichester Festival Theatre 2007 production of MACBETH opposite Patrick Stewart, directed by her husband Rupert Goold at the National, which transferred to Broadway and earned her a Tony nomination. She was also nominated for an Olivier in 2012 for her role as Julie in the ground-breaking musical LONDON ROAD.

It’s been a gloriously hectic year for Kate playing the prickly socialite Tracey Lord in HIGH SOCIETY at the Old Vic, the ferocious MADEA in Rachel Cusk’s 21st Century take on the Greek tragedy at the Almeida and appearing in STAR WARS:THE FORCE AWAKENS as a First Order Officer.

I drew this sketch of Kate incorporating her roles as the goaler’s daughter in THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN at the Globe in 2000, MEDEA and Agnes in BUG, which she signed for me.

Drawing: James Norton in Bug

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

James Norton

James Norton is certainly flavour of the month, if not the year and according to The Sunday Express, the 30 year old British actor is “set to become one of the biggest names of his generation”. A BAFTA nomination for his role as a psychopath in the TV crime drama HAPPY VALLEY, a lead role in WAR & PEACE and the crime-solving vicar, Sidney Chambers alongside Robson Green in the latest cult series GRANTCHESTER has cemented his status.

He is currently treading the London boards at Found 111, the tiny 130 seat pop-up theatre space on Charing Cross Road in Tracy Letts 1996 paranoia play BUG. He plays Peter, a Gulf War vet who is on the run from being experimented on at an army hospital and arrives at a seedy hotel where he meets lonely waitress (Kate Fleetwood).

Both are damaged souls and both become concerned with the infestation of bugs, both insects and surveillance devices. Henry Hutchings wrote in his Evening Standard review, “the impressive Norton slowly exposes Peter’s psychological injuries. As he treats his body like a laboratory for a series of gruesome (one audience member fainted during Wednesday’s evening performance) experiments, every audience member’s flesh starts to crawl.”

Jame arrived with plenty of time to spare for Saturday’s matinee and was happy to spend time with a gathering of fans, mostly female and a couple of us male types and signed this sketch for me. He even said he liked it, but I guess what he has to suffer on stage being sketched is the least of his worries.