Tag Archives: Theatre

Drawing: Kit Harington in Doctor Faustus

Posted on by
Reply

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: Lady Rizo at the Soho Theatre

Posted on by
Reply

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: James Norton in Bug

Posted on by
Reply

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

Posted on by
1

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

Posted on by
Reply

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: Denise Gough in People, Places and Things

Posted on by
Reply

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: Rolan Bell in Memphis

Posted on by
Reply
Rolan Bell
Some things take time…and six attempts, but I eventually got Rolan Bell to sign my sketch. Not that Rolan was aware of my toils. He’s just completed the year long run as the underground nightclub manager Delray Farrell in the Broadway transfer of the hit musical MEMPHIS at London’s Shaftesbury Theatre. It’s a venue that I got to be familiar with over the final weeks, well it’s stage door that is. Rolan did pretty well in the role, earning an Olivier Award nomination. I didn’t do well and kept missing him, going in or coming out. One time he was having a day off.  In this busines these things happen. I finally, on the last day resorted to leaving the drawing with a note and SAE at the now familiar, almost a family member stage door. That worked!
If you want to catch Rolan. he’s in the Christmas Show RAPUNZEL at the Park Theatre over the Festive season.

Drawing: Frances Barber

Posted on by
Reply

francis barber

Picasso had his ‘Blue’ period, I had my ‘black Bic biro’ one. The fine point version is very versatile, building up layers with cross-hatching, or in my case ‘scribble-hatching’. This drawing of the alluring English actress Frances Barber and her enticing evening gloves is an example. However, the medium is not always ideal for rendering certain textures such as black latex with it defining ‘shimmers’, so it turned into more of a doodling exercise emptying the ink of one ballpoint overworking the gloves. It worked for her hair though. Actually I found out that Frances’s most treasured possession is a piece of artwork, a painting of her adored bulldog  Smack, who she had for 11 years. While not in the same revered class, she didn’t mind mind signing my sketch of the doodled-fur gloves for me during her run in Les Parents Terribles at London’s Trafalgar Studios in 2010.

Drawing: Ian Rickson and Jez Butterworth

Posted on by
Reply

Ian Rickson Jez Butterworth

Playwright Jez Butterworth and director Ian Rickson have formed a formidable team and are considered one of contemporary British theatre’s great collaborators. Jez’s debut play, Mojo, the black gangster comedy set in a Soho nightclub in the 1950s, premiered at London’s Royal Court Theatre in 1995, directed by Ian Rickson who became the resident artistic director from 1998 – 2006, replacing Stephen Daldry.

They have been friends and collaborators ever since, with Ian directing all of Jez’s plays. That includes the smash hit Jerusalem, that was a runaway success at the Court, on West End and Broadway.

Eighteen years later Ian directed a revival of Mojo at the Harold Pinter Theatre, featuring an all star cast, including Ben Whishaw, Daniel Mays and Rupert Grint.

I love Jez’s writing and am a huge fan of Ian’s direction. They are both very likeable chaps; always engaging and obliging.

I drew this sketch of Ian and Jez in rehearsals for Mojo, hoping to get both to sign it on press night in November 2013. I managed to get Jez, but couldn’t find Ian, so figured he’d be around through the season. Whenever our paths did cross over the next two years, I didn’t have the sketch on me.

It wasn’t until press night of his most recent play The Red Lion at the National’s Dorfman Stage last week that I had a chance. I had to politely excuse myself at the official gathering in the foyer after the performance. He was his usual friendly self, liked the sketch and happily signed it.

Drawing: Hugo Weaving in Waiting For Godot at the Barbican

Posted on by
4

Hugo Weaving

This is a sketch of Hugo Weaving as Vladimir in WAITING FOR GODOT. It’s one of two drawings I did last week based on the Sydney Theatre Company’s production that had a short season at the Barbican in London. The other sketch was a montage of all four cast members, including Richard Roxburgh, Philip Quast and Luke Mullins, which they all signed for me earlier in the run. Hugo had graphed ‘hugo w’, which was more personal, but I thought on this one I would like a full ‘hugo weaving’ (he likes his lower case letters). Collectors like to have exemplars of all autograph variations.

After the final performance last Saturday evening, it was way past 11 before the cast emerged intent on climbing into cars, to whisk them to the after-party. A large group of hunters and collectors… and the obligotary dealers (which I place in the former category) were waiting. Hugo was the last to appear and he signed a few LOTR books and stills, as his PA announced that he was in a hurry and couldn’t sign. This caused a panic amongst the hunters who swarmed on the target with the likelihood of me getting anything, let alone a full ‘hugo weaving’ diminishing by the milisecond. however he saw the sketch, took my pen-not my trusty sharpie, but a new Pentel fine point- which I’ve discovered is excellent for signing the drawings on the sketch paper-and signed ‘hugo w’. Since he still had my pen, signing a few items as the official  hurridly escorted him to the waiting vehicle, I tried to get the ‘eaving’ after the ‘w’, but to no avail. So I have two ‘personal’ graphed GODOT sketches…no ‘eaving’ and no Pentel fine point pen. It must be an Australian thing, I thought, walking to the tube station holding the cap.they like to collect collectors pens minus their caps. Previously I had the same experience, on more than one occasion with Aussie tennis ace Lleyton Hewitt, the subject of another blog you may care to read for reference.