Tag Archives: sketch

Drawing: James Norton in Bug

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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.

Drawing: Tom Conti in Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell

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Tom Conti Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell

JEFFREY BERNARD IS UNWELL was a  famous one-line apology on a blank page in the respected British magazine, The Spectator, when the infamous columnist and constant soak Jeffrey Bernard was either to drunk or hung-over to produce the required copy for his LOW LIFE column. It is also the title for Keith Waterhouse’s hit play and loving tribute to the legendary Soho drunk, which premiered in the West End at the Apollo Theatre in 1989 with Peter O’Toole in the title role. He also revived the part in the sell-out run at the Old Vic ten years later. Peter was followed by Tom Conti, who also revived the role at the Garrick Theatre in 2006.

According to the playwright, Jeffrey Bernard was born in 1932 – probably by mistake. He had few friends at school, preferring to sit at the back of the classroom, playing with himself. He left, a chain smoker with no worthwhile academic qualifications. In 1946 Jeff paid his first visit to Soho and from that point he was never to look forward, finding himself in his element as a registered layabout in the cafes and pubs of Dean and Old Compton Streets. It was here that he ‘developed his remarkable sloth envy and self-pity.’

He failed at a number of odd jobs, including a disastrous stint as a barman, which was to lead to his chaotic life of alcohol abuse and ‘chronic unwellness’.

A sycophant, he mixed with the famous Soho residents including Dylan Thomas and Francis Bacon and by chance became a journalist firstly for ‘Sporting Life’ before establishing himself as one of the funniest columnists in British journalism. He was the first racing correspondent to write from the point of view of the loser, a stance that was to become the basis for his future writing.

He once wrote the following, which summed up his existence. “I have been commissioned to write an autobiography and I would be grateful to any of your readers who could tell me what I was doing between 1960-1974.”

Tom signed this appropriately chaotic sketch I drew of him in his role as Jeffrey Bernard at the Garrick, which he signed for me at the Park Theatre last week during his season in THE PATRIOTIC TRAITOR.

Drawing: Tom Conti and Laurence Fox in The Patriotic Traitor

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Tom Conti Laurence Fox

Jonathan Lynn’s new play THE PATRIOTIC TRAITOR examines the gripping encounter between two giants of history, France’s WWI hero Philippe Petain and his protege Charles de Gaulle and the infamous armistice with Nazi Germany signed during the Second World War, which resulted in de Gaulle trying his life long friend for treason. Tom Conti played Petain and Laurence Fox was De Gaulle, which completed its run at North London’s Park Theatre last week. In his five-star review for the Daily Mail, Quentin Letts wrote “… scintilla tingly topical, beautifully written and magnificently acted.”

Both Tom and Laurence signed this montage drawing for me on the final night.

Drawing: Nicole Cabell in La traviata

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Nicole Cabell

One often most sought-after lyric sopranos today, Nicole Cabell returned to Covent Garden this month for two performances as the lead Violetta in the Royal Opera House’s latest season of LA TRAVIATA, a role she previously played in the San Francisco production in 2014. With African American Korean and Caucasian ancestry, Nicole grew up in the Californian beach community of Ventura before gracing the world’s Opera stages. After winning the 2005 ‘BBC Singer of the World’ Competition in Cardiff, she made her London debut at THE PROMS the following year and for the Royal Opera in LA JUIVE at the Barbican.

Nichols signed this drawing I did of her as Violetta  at the ROH after her final performance on 19 March.

Drawing: Kitten Killers in Woof

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Kitten Killers Woof

What better subject to draw than sketch comedy. In this case a comedy sketch group and “flagrant abusers of all things cute and fluffy.’ Fran Bushe, Kat Cade and Perdita Stott, collectively known as the KITTEN KILLERS, have been described by one critic as ‘Archly clever at the same time as being damn silly.”

They played two nights last week at the Soho Theatre where in April 2013 they formed after being part of the Young Company Lab. I left this sketch and it came back signed with a very nice note. It’s hard to think they would hurt kittens, given their kindness to a comedy sketch artist.

Drawing: Denise Gough in People, Places and Things

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Denise Gough

The favourite to win this week’s Olivier Award for Best Actress is Denise Gough for her exceptional performance as a recovering addict in Duncan Macmillian’s PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS. She has already won the Critics’ Circle Award. A year ago, the Irish actress was out of work and contemplating quitting acting. She applied for a cleaning job and auditioned for the play at the National Theatre, winning the lead role. It opened on the National’s Dorfman stage last September to rave reviews and a sell-out season, transferring to the West End’s Wyndham’s Theatre this month for a twelve week run.

“The extraordinary Denise Gough electrifies as a raging, terrified addict” wrote Susannah Clapp in her Guardian review.

Denise signed my sketch at the Wyndham’s stage door prior to Saturday’s matinee. Oh and apparently she didn’t get the cleaning job, which was just as well really.

Drawing: Jane Horrocks in If You Kiss Me, Kiss Me

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Jane Horrocks

LITTLE VOICE and ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS star Jane Horrocks has returned to the Young Vic stage in London with her new show IF YOU KISS ME, KISS ME. Described as ‘part gig, part dance piece’ the one hour hybrid show was conceived by Jane and choreographer Aletta Collins as a tribute to the post punk new wave music that Jane grew up with in Lancashire during the 70’s and early 80’s. Jane performs her own ‘gritty and soulful’ versions with a ‘bit more contemporary edge to them’ of songs from The Smiths, Joy Division, The Human League, The Buzzcocks, Soft Cell and others, accompanied by a live band and a company of dancers.

In his four-star review, The Telegraph’s music critic Mark Monahan said it was “one of the crispest and kookiest hours of entertainment you’re likely to encounter all year.”

Jane signed this drawing for me after her matinee performance on Saturday.

Drawing: Jasmine Hyde

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Jasmine Hyde

I first met  English actress Jasmine Hyde at friend and fellow kiwi, Ben Farry’s London flat in the early part of this millennium to discuss a film project I was developing at the time.  Both Ben and Jasmine graduated from RADA in 2000, along with Daniel Mays who also joined us. Jasmine has had an varied stage and screen career along with acclaimed radio work includes the BBC dramatisation of John Mortimer’s RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY series and THE ARCHERS. In 2001 she won the prestigious Carlton Hobbs Award for Radio.

Jasmine’s extensive stage work includes working with the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 2002 she appeared in the Trevor Nunn directed, nine hour trilogy THE COAST OF UTOPIA, three sequential and self-contained plays by Tom Stoppard on the Olivier stage at the National.

I caught up with Jasmine  at the Arts Theatre in London a couple of weeks ago where she is currently featuring in the world premiere of the irreverent biblical comedy NOT MOSES. I drew this montage of her recent stage performances which she signed for me.

Drawing: Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig in A Steady Rain

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Hugh Jackman Daniel Craig

Last October I posted this sketch of Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman in A STEADY RAIN which Daniel signed at the SPECTRE World  Premiere at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Then I had to wait for an opportunity to get Hugh to do the same. That happened last week at the Premiere of EDDIE THE EAGLE at the Odeon in Leicester Square.

A STEADY RAIN had it’s Broadway debut at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in late 2009. Michael Huff’s crackerjack two-handler is an incisive character study of the stressed relationship between two Chicago cops, boyhood buddies and professional partners. Steven Spielberg has earmarked it for a film adaption.

Daniel played Joey and Hugh was Denny. The former is introverted, single and lonely and in love with Denny’s wife, who by contrast is the married, angry, racist tough-guy who cheats on his wife. With the two A-listers from the super-heroic franchise film roles – James Bond and X-Men mutant Wolverine, It became the hottest ticket in town, selling out the 12 week season in no time.

The New York Times theatre critic Ben Brantley praised both performances in the ‘gripping noir tale’, but did slip in the notion that if “they had chosen to recite the alphabet in counterpoint, their joint appearance would still generate the same ticket sales.”

As mentioned Hugh was in town last week and steady rain threatened to stymy the sketch signing moment, but he inscribed his distinctive monogram ‘HJ’ moniker on the drawing before any weather intervened.

Drawing: Berenice Bejo

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Berenice Bejo

It was a little known black and white French film, shot on an old fashioned 1.33:1 ratio, mostly silent with a running time of only 100 minutes and featuring the director’s wife in a lead role, but THE ARTIST was the big winner in 2011, collecting every major Best Picture award including the 5 Oscars and 7 BAFTAs.

Michel Hazanavicius’ celebrated tribute to the early era of motion pictures starred Jean Dujardin as the silent movie star who meets a young dancer, French Argentine actress Berenice Bejo as the advent of talking pictures sends their careers in opposite directions. The film had a small screening at the BFI London Film Festival and given the title I just had to pop along where a relatively small crowd had gathered so I able to meet everyone without the usual collecting carnage. Then it became a huge hit.

When it later returned to London for the actual Premiere, the normal battle zone resumed. l drew this sketch of Berenice to get signed on the day, but mailed it to her Paris agency instead, which she signed and dedicated for me.