Drawing: The Inbetweeners

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

The boys are back for their final instalment. The Inbetweeners 2 movie had its London Premiere at the Vue Cinema yesterday and the Rudge Park Comprehensive quartet of Will, Simon, Jay and Neil all attended masquerading as actors Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley and Blake Harrison. After the award winning TV series and the first movie in 2011 the lads have reached cult status.

The quickest of quick sketches just to capture their likeness. It was a last minute decision to attend with half and hour to draw, race to the train, (which was cancelled), get the re-scheduled service which chugged into town. Made it to a public pen near the drop off point, six rows deep, thinking this is not a good idea. Getting one siggy, let alone four, looked like mission impossible. Minutes later a big black car arrives and all four slip out, doing the obligatory group photo, then move around the line. Blake slipped past first, and if it wasn’t for Robert (a fellow grapher) grabbing my sketch and hurtling himself to the front, accompanied by a shrill, “Blake Blake Blake!” I would have missed. A young guy in front of me wanted to high five them, so I said to him, “As you do that could you also point to this sketch,” which I conveniently held up next to him. It worked and I got all four – Simon even dedicated. Mission accomplished.

Drawing: Handbagged at the Vaudeville Theatre

Posted on August 5, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Undoubtably one of the theatrical highlights of the past year was Handbagged, Moira Buffin’s latest play tells the tales of the Queen’s weekly meetings with Margaret Thatcher. Premiering at the Tricycle Theatre in October 2013, the sold out run won an Olivier Award and transferred to the West End. It was commissioned by the Tricycles new artistic director Indu Rubasingham.

The play arrived at the Vaudeville Theatre with the cast more or less in tact; only Clare Holman was substituted as the younger monarch by Lucy Robinson. As the slogan stated “Liz. Maggie. Tea at four. Handbags at dawn.”

Two enduring icons of the 20th Century, born six months apart – what did the world’s most powerful women talk about? It’s a shrews piece that cleverly explores what might have gone on behind closed doors.

The play’s runaway success, and unanimous critical acclaim, depended in large on the brilliant performances of its four actresses who play older and younger versions of the two leaders. Marion Bailey is the older monarch sitting in judgement of her younger self, and the older Maggie played by Stella Gonet looks back on the woman that she was in office “embodied with all her mannerisms down to a T” by Fenella Woolgar. As The Telegraph’s Tim Walker stated in his five star review, “only a director of Indhu Rubasingham’s sensitivity could cope with the gear changes that shift the action form slapstick to moments of unbearable pathos.”

All four kindly singed my sketch in the final week, as the play completed its Vaudeville run on Saturday 2 August.

Drawing: Nigel Havers in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Harold Pinter Theatre

Posted on August 4, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

The quintessential English charmer, Nigel Havers is 62, and returns to a role he played at 26 in Oscar Wilde’s classic farce The Importance of Being Earnest at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London. Wilde’s masterpiece has some additional material added by Simon Brett as a framing device to enable older actors to play younger roles.

Nigel originally player Algernon Moncrieff in Peter Hall’s 1982 production at the National alongside Martin Jarvis, who also reprises his role as Jack Worthing.

The latest re-imagining revolves around The Bunbury Company of Players, an amateur troupe of veteran thesps performing a dress rehearsal. In one of the added lines, someone suggests that the ageing roué is not really an actor, Nigel’s character quips, “that’s true of so many who make a living at it.” And he has made a good fist of it over a 30 year career playing smoothies, gentlemen and cads, in such films as A Passage to India, Empire of the Sun and Chariots of Fire, plus a string of small screen roles – his latest being the charismatic con-artist Lewis Archer in Corrie.

Nigel is always on the go. On the number of occasions our paths have crossed he has definitely taken the fast lane. But, he always has time to sign. Just as well he has a swift siggy to complement his famous charm.

Drawing: Gillian Anderson in A Doll’s House at The Young Vic Theatre

Posted on August 1, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Kfir Yefet’s staging of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House played London’s Donmar Warehouse through the summer of 2009. I’ve been carrying this sketch around with me ever since. Well, not this specific sketch and not ever since. I originally did another one which I carried arouond with me, hoping to get Gillian to sign it since I missed her at the theatre (note to self: never leave signings to the last performance). Gillian was a regular at screenings, premieres, film festivals and press nights, so I carried the sketch just in case. When I didn’t have the sketch, Gillian would make an appearance. In the end I mailed it to her via her agent and re-drew this one, which I have carried around ever since (and when I haven’t, déja vu!)

My chance came last night. Gillian has returned to the London stage to rave reviews as Blanche Dubois in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire at the Young Vic. He opened this week after a short preview season. It’s a long play which can be a help or a hinderance for ‘graphing. After three and a half hours of “shatteringly powerful” performing I guess the last thing she would want to do is meet, greet and ‘graph with the gathered throng.

Normally at the Young Vic I position myself near the interior stage door that opens out onto The Cut Bar, but the two security persons (first time I’ve seen that at the Young Vic) corral to a line near the ticket desk. It’s well after 11pm, so the bar’s closing. “Programmes and tickets only,” one of the security guys told the handful of people waiting.

“Ms Anderson will only be signing programmes or tickets, so don’t offend her by offering anything else.”

Gillian popped down and stood behind the ticket desk and started signing. I waited until everyone had finisihed then approached her, apologising that I didn’t have a programme or a ticket, but a sketch from 2009, which I showed her and asked if she could sign it “to Mark”. She looked at it, smiled and said, “is that with a ‘c’ or a ‘k’?”

“A ‘k’,” I replied, and left thanking the security on my way out to catch the last train.

Sketch: Felicity Jones and Finty Willilams, in Luise Miller

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Kabale und Liebe, Love and Intrigue, Love and Politics or simply Luise Miller, are all titles for the same play written by the German dramatist Friedrich Schiller in 1784.

The Donmar Warehouse in London chose Luise Miller in June and July 2011, directed by Michael Grandage, working with translator Mike Poulton on a more contemporary version of this landmark bourgeois tragedy.

In the title role was East Londoner Felicity Jones, who turned down a major film role to do the play. She plays the wholesome daughter of a modest violinist in a tale of “precarious liaisons, shadowy desires, backroom skulduggery and the iniquities of class snobbery.” It’s Schiller’s answer to Romeo & Juliet with melodramatic tendencies.

Having just won the special jury prize at the Sundance Festival for Like Crazy, she was in great demand for more film roles. “I want to keep a balance,” she said, “West End won’t lose me to the movies.”

Her ‘mother’ was played by Finty Williams, described by one review as “a sweet natured blabbermouth”. I had drawn a sketch of the both of them with a fine black biro. Whilst waiting outside the Donmar on a balmy summer’s evening for the cast to emerge (which took a bit longer because I think the were doing a Q+A session with the audience) I drew a quick pencil sketch of Felicity with my 2B – which in the balminess became a softer 4B! This was based on a publicity photo pinned to the Donmar Wall.

Drawing: Tom Watson

Posted on July 30, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

During the 1970s and 80s Tom Watson was one of the leading golfers in the world and he doesn’t play a bad game these days either. Pushing sixty and 26 years after his last major victory Tom led much of the 2009 Open Championship at Turnberry in Scotland but eventually lost in a four hole playoff to Stewart Clink.

I remember watching the last day glued to the TV, hoping he would win. He had a chance in regulation play with a par on the last hole, but missed an eight foot putt.

He is regarded as one of the greatest links players of all time, winning five Open Championships and three Senior British Open Championship titles. He’s also won the Masters twice and the US Open. In fact he was number on from 1978-1982, replacing Jack Nicklaus.

Tom was back in Britain this year playing both Open Championships, so I quickly did a sketch for signing and sent it to him at Royal Porthcrawl in Wales where he played the senior championship last week. He didn’t disappoint. What a nice guy.

Drawing: Alfred Molina in Red at the Donmar Warehouse

Posted on July 26, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Alred Molina played celebrated abstract artist Mark Rothko in John Logan’s RED in London and New York. The play opened at the Donmar Warehouse in December 2009 to excellent reviews and sold out performances before moving to Broadway in March 2010, winning six Tony Award including Best Play.

Marcus Rothkowitz emigrated with his family to the US from Russia as a boy in 1903. He became a central figure in the postwar American abstract expressionists, the so-called New York School. The group, who couldn’t really draw, also included Barnett Newman, Clifford Still, Franz Kline and Jackson Pollock. They sought refuge in abstractionism to camouflage their modest artists talents.

RED revolves around Rothko’s last decade of his life when his palette reduced dramatically from glowing oranges and yellows to the sombre shades of red and black – banal work on a large canvas!

“There is only one thing I fear in life, my friend… one day the black will swallow the red.”

At the centre of it is his undertaking of the Four Seasons restaurant commission in Manhattan’s Seagram Building in which he famously declared that his paintings would “put all the rich bastards off their food.” In the end, due to his moral conflict of interest, he returned the $35,000 advance and refused to have his work hung in the restaurant.

Alfred signed my ‘representational impressionist’ piece at the Donmar in January 2010. Unlike Rothko who experimented with a lot of mediums, including glue and eggs, I stuck to more conventional rendering materials such as black biro , crayons and a felt tip pen. I did allow colour to add impact and reinforce the play’s ttitle. In this case ‘red swallows the black!’

Drawing: Tamsin Greig in The Little Dog Laughed at the Garrick Theatre

Posted on July 25, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Tamsin Greig said she was inspired to become an actor going to rehearsals of school plays… because it got her out of science and the only other thing she was good at was trampolining which didn’t seem to have much of a future in it.

In 2010, Tamsin played Diane, a ferociously ambitious agent in The Little Dog Laughed, alongside Gemma Arterton, Rupert Friend and Harry Lloyd at the Garrick Theatre in London. By all accounts she stole the show, some critics even said “saved it”. She had all the best lines.

In fact, the play is more a vehicle for Diane’s character. As Michael Bilington calls it, “the play depends on an ingenious imbroglio. Diane… this power-dressed female Machiavel.”

“Tamsin Greig dominates as the lethally sharp agent, detonating every line with killer punch and timing.” Said The Daily Express.

She was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress (having previously won in 2007 for Much Ado About Nothing) and won the WhatsOnStage Theatregoers Choice Award. Tamsin is known for doing both dramatic and Comedic roles, although the latter generally cause problems. Sh has admitted to ‘corpsing’ which is British theatrical slang for unintentionally breaking character by laughing.

When I looked at this sketch, which Tamsin signed in February 2010, I thought ‘her hands are disproportionally larger”. Taking into account some foreshortening with the left. So I looked at a number of photos of her and she does have large hands and long fingers! Art indeed imitated life. That must have been the same for Michelangelo when he was sculpting the the David statue.

Drawing: Sir Trevor Nunn

Posted on July 24, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Sir Trevor Nunn is the Knight I would want to spend a day with. His list of productions include Les Miserables, Cats, Chess, Sunset Boulevard, Starlight Express, Piaf, Aspects of Love, A Little Night Music, not to mention just about every play by the Bard. In fact, it would be quicker to list what he hasn’t done. Not to mention his list of achievements and awards, far too numerous for this small space.

Some critics consider him the finest and most versatile theatre director in the world. He was one of the theatrical icons I always wanted to meet. Since living in London over the past five and a bit years, our paths have crossed on many occasions – all of which are memorable (to me).

Sir Trevor is the kind of person you can stop in the street (without security reminding you of your mortality) and ‘chew the fat’. He has always been very friendly and generous with his time and comments. He walks a lot around London. I remember waiting at the lights in Shaftesbury Avenue and he was beside me, so we walked and chatted.

“Hi, Sir Trevor, how’s rehearsal for Birdsong going?” I would say.

“I’m going there now,” as we both headed towards the Comedy Theatre.

He’s always wearing his denims – something he has been doing since 1961. Elizabeth Grice in an interview with Sir Trevor earlier this year in The Telegraph mentioned this fact in connection with his youthfulness. She said of the 74 year old: “if I mistype him as 47 it seems to make more sense… his thick, dark hair, also c. 1961, is still, improbably thick and dark. He might be the scruffy boy who has strayed in through the stage door to get autographs.” Now, that sounds familiar!

I drew this quick ink sketch which he signed for me at the front door of the Theatre Royal Haymarket on the opening night of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead on a balmy June evening in 2011.

Drawing: Hannah Wadingham and Kelly Price in A Little Night Music

Posted on July 23, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

One of my favourite songs is ‘Send in the Clowns’ from Stephen Sondheim’s 1973 musical A Little Night Music. I’m not sure why I like it – the haunting melody, the lyrics or maybe as a political cartoonist it’s simply metaphorical. Sondheim that it was about fools and foolishness.

It’s the show’s big number – a ballad from Act II in which the character Desiree reflects on the ironies and disappointments of her life after her marriage proposal is declined. The song became a major pop hit when first Judy Collins recorded it in England, then Frank Sinatra heard it and also recorded it. It won the Grammy in 1976 for Song of the Year. Since then it seems that every person who sings has recorded it, including Barbra Streisand, Shirley Bassey, Olivia Newton-John, Elaine Paige…. even Krusty the Clown of The Simpsons.

Sir Trevor Nunn’s 2009 production – the third London revival – started life at the Menier Chocolate Factory before transferring to the Garrick Theatre. The wonderful Hannah Waddingham played Desiree, the touring thesp, self-absorbed, once-successful actress who rekindles her love affair with a benign middle aged lawyer, now married to an 18 year old.

Kelly Price played Charlotte, the tolerant wife of Desiree’s lover Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm. Both ewere nominated for Olivier Awards. Getting this sketch signed was a bit of a mission. I eventually caught up with Kelly after a performance of The Misanthrope at the Comedy Theatre in March 2010 and Hannah signed in August at the Regent’s Park Open Theatre where she was appearing in Into The Woods.