Drawing: Arthur Darvill in Once at the Phoenix Theatre

Posted on April 12, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

British musician and actor Arthur Darvill’s small screen notoriety includes the concerned vicar of Broadchurch, and Rory Williams, the eleventh Doctor’s companion in Dr Who for three seasons, until he disembarked from the Tardis, killed off by the Weeping Angels.

Arthur has composed music for three London productions, The Frontline (Globe), Been So Long (Young Vic) and The Lightning Child (Globe) and has trod on the city’s boards in Our Boys (Duchess), Doctor Faustus (Globe) and Been So Long (Young Vic) and Swimming With Sharks (Vaudeville) with Doctor Who co-star Matt Smith.

And he also collects taxidermy, which seems to be a common hobby for a few people I’ve sketched. After an eight month run as Guy, the Irish busking vacuum cleaner repairman, in the musical Once at the Bernard B Jacobs Theater on Broadway, Arthur continued the role in the London production in march this year for a limited engagement.

I caught up with him at the Phoenix Theatre stage door midweek with my drawing. He said “It looks better than me,” but signed it anyway with a ‘nice’ comment.

Drawing: Frances Ruffelle

Posted on April 5, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Frances Ruffelle’s name must appear near the top of a list of great people in British Musical Theatre.

She originated the role of Eponine in both the West End and Broadway productions of the blockbuster musical Les Misérables, winning the Tony award in 1987. Frances also represented the UK in the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, finishing 10th singing Lonely Symphony (We Will Be Free). She also the original Dinah in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s original London production of Starlight Express in 1984 at the age of 16. Frances played the female lead Roxie Hart in Chicago at the Adelphi Theatre in London from September 2003 to June 2004. She reprised the role for the show’s 10th anniversary in 2007 and continued in the production into 2008.

Frances returned to the London stage recently to play the deranged but vulnerable mum of London mapmaker Phyllis Pearsall in The A to Z of Mrs P at the Southwark Playhouse where she signed my sketch.

Drawing: Tracie Bennett in The End of the Rainbow at Trafalgar Studios

Posted on March 28, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Tracie Bennett is best known for her work in the both dramatic and musical theatre, receiving Olivier Awards for her performances in She Loves Me and Hairspray.

In February 2010 she took on the role of Judy Garland in the months leading up to her death, in the first London production of Peter Quilter’s play The End of the Rainbow at the Trafalgar Studios with critical success. Tracie received an Olivier nomination for her performance. The production transferred to Broadway in March 2012 at the Belasco Theatre with Tracie reprising her role, winning the Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Play and a Tony nomination.

Tracie signed this quick sketch of her in the Garland role at the Olivier Awards in Covent Garden in March 2011.

Drawing: Amanda Drew in Parlour Song at the Almeida Theatre

Posted on March 27, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

British actress Amanda Drew is equally at home in a drama or a comedy or for that matter, on stage or on screen. She’s been seen on the small screen in all the major UK TV shows and is a regular on the London boards. Amanda was playing Judy in Nationals THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT TIME at the Apollo, until the roof collapsed last December. The play will resume in the Gielgud next door from 24 June. I drew Amanda playing the sultry Joy in Jez Butterworth’s PARLOUR SONG at the Almeida Theatre in March 2009. She featured opposite Andrew Lincoln in a story where martial bliss turns into domestic boredom, then a mix of paranoid fantasy, surreal nightmares and dreams of escape follow! Amanda is always very nice to meet and have a chat. She did so on her way into the Duchess theatre in late summer, 2011 for a matinee performance of BUTLEY, signing the sketch in the process.

Drawing: Keir Charles and Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Mydidae

Posted on March 22, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Mydidae was written to fulfil a specific brief. DryWrite commissioned BAFTA award-winning writer Jack Thorne to create a play set entirely in a fully functioning bathroom. Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Keir Charles play Marian and David – a couple reaching the first anniversary of a shared personal tragedy. A controversial and intimate exploration of a relationship with its different perspectives and conflicting views when loss and pain can mutate into blame and guilt that delivers a brutal jolt.

Mydidae premiered at the Soho Theatre in 2012 before transferring to the Trafalgar Studios in March 2013.

Drawing: Emily Joyce in Yes Prime Minister at the Gielgud Theatre

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

In 2010 Emily Joyce appeared as the Prime Minister’s special policy advisor, Claire Sutton in Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn’s stage version of Yes, Prime Minister. The production premiered at the Chichester Festival in May before transferring to the Gielgud Theatre in the West End in the autumn. Emily signed my biro sketch in January 2011 at the theatre’s stage door.

Drawing: Juliet Stevenson in Happy Days at The Young Vic

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Critics are unanimous about Juliet Stevenson’s latest stage incarnation in Samuel Beckett’s HAPPY DAYS at the Young Vic. Playing Winnie,a woman tragically aware of her mental plight, requires the actress to be buried in a mound of sand. Sarah Hemming of the Financial Times wrote, “Lear in the storm, Winnie in the sandheap: Two of the greatest stage metaphors for the human condition and two of the most challenging roles for an actor.” The Guardian’s Michael Billington said Juliet “gives a remarkable performance.” and Henry Hutchings of the Evening Standard adds, she “brings grace, poise and a crazed resilience to the incurably optimestic Winnie.” Extra performances have been added due to demand with the play finishing 8 March.

Drawing: Pádraic Delaney and Gary Lilburn in The Cripple of Inishmaan

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Pádraic Delaney and Gary Lilburn complete my set of The Cripple of Inishmaan sketches. The third in the series of Michael Grandage’s five plays at the Noël Coward Theatre in London. It transfers for a Broadway run in April.

Pádraic international breakthrough came in 2006 as Irish revolutionary Teddy O’Donovan in Ken Loach’s The Wind That Shakes The Barley, which won the Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He followed up his role in Inishmaan with a consecutive shift in the following Michael Grandage Company play A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the twin roles of Oberon and Thesus.

Gary can currently be seen in the critically acclaimed Oscar nominated Philomena with Judi Dench

Drawings: Pat Shortt and June Watson in The Cripple of Inishmaan

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Irish actor, comedian and musician Pat Shortt plays the garrulous gossip Johnny Pateenmike who peddles rumours and applies himself to finishing off his 90 year old mother – played by the wonderful June Watson – with alcohol in Michael Grandage’s dark, politically incorrect 1997 comedy The Cripple of Inishmaan at the Noel Coward Theatre.

Better known as the crazy Tom in Father Ted, who was always wearing a tshirt with the slogan “I shot JR”, he also appears on a postage stamp as Josie, from the award-winning film Garage.

Both Pat & June signed my sketch in July 2013 and will join the rest of the cast in the Broadway transfer this April.

Drawing: Sarah Greene and Conor MacNeill in The Cripple of Inishmaan

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Irish actors Sarah Greene and Conor MacNeill played the feisty siblings in The Cripple of Inishmaan – the third of five plays in the Michael Grandage season at London’s Noël Coward Theatre during the Summer of 2013. Sarah played ‘Slippy’ Helen, the egg throwing, foul-mouthed object of Cripple Billy’s desires. “I shouldn’t laugh at you Billy… but I will.” Conor plays her mischievous younger brother, Bartley with a passion for sweeties and telescopes.

Sarah and Conor signed my first sketch in July, when I suddenly noticed that, “it’s Mintios, not Mintos!”

So, I did another drawing with the correct spelling, which Conor was happy to graph. I gave him a copy, then realised I had spelt his surname ‘O’Neill’ instead of ‘MacNeill.’

The play was magical – there was, after all, a wizard in the title role – and it cast a mis-spell over me. Both will be a part of the returning cast when Inishmaan takes on the Broadway boards in April.