Drawing: Kenneth Cranham and Claire Skinner in The Father

Posted on October 10, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Kenneth Cranham Claire Skinner The Father

‘The most acclaimed new play of the decade’, The Father has just transferred to London’s Wyndham’s Theatre for a limited 8-week run after it’s UK tour. Receiving an unprecedented nine 5-star reviews from all of the British major newspaper critics and winner of France’s highest theatrical honour, the 2014 Moliere Award for Best Play, this Theatre Royal Bath and Tricycle Theatre production is based on Christopher Hampton’s ‘crisp and witty’ adaption of French playwright Florian Zeller’s savagely honest study of dementia. Tony and Olivier Award nominees Kenneth Cranham as the titular character Andre and Claire Skinner as his daughter Anne lead the superb cast. The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish wrote,”One of the most absorbing and distressing portraits of dementia I’ve ever seen.” The writer wants the audience to ‘get lost in a mental labyrinth’, not to simply be a witness of the effects of Alzheimer’s, but to actually feel the confusion and the devastating realisation and loss of what is slipping away. In many reviews it was reported that the final scene has most of the audience sobbing and some having to be helped from the auditorium.

The stage doors of both the Wyndham’s and Noel Coward Theatre’s open out onto a small shared alleyway. Photograph 51 with Nicole Kidman is currently running at the later, attracting a large crowd for it’s A-list star, which means The Father cast can be a little difficult to find emerging at the same time, especially on a Saturday night. Howeve, I managed to locate both Kenneth and Claire to sign my sketch.

Drawing: Stephen Merchant and Steffan Rhodri in The Mentalists

Posted on August 19, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

the mentalists

“The oddest of odd couple comedy”, is how Richard Bean’s The Mentalists is described by a number of critics. “It’s a sympathetic understanding of the darker recesses of the human heart,” wrote Charles Spencer in the Mail. The play revolves around Ted and Morrie, two men holed up in a budget hotel in Finsbury Park, making an apocalyptic video. Premiering in 2002 at the National, it was revived last month at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre, directed by Abbey Wright, with Steffan Rhodri as Morrie and making his ‘impressive’ (The Independent) West End debut, Stephen Merchant as Ted. ‘Very Funny’, said TimeOut and Paul Taylor commented on the “fine Merchant-Rhodri chemistry”, in The Independent, so catch it before it finishes on 29 August!

I did a couple of sketches-one with Stephen, which he signed earlier in the run and one of the ‘oddest of odd couples’, which I got graphed over the weekend. So now I have an odd couple of drawings.

Drawing: The King’s Speech

Posted on August 1, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

The Kings Speech

Before it reached the big screen, The King’s Speech was a play. At its heart is the relationship between the stuttering King George VI and the Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue’s treatment to correct the English Royal’s debilitating impediment.

As a child, writer David Seidler developed a stammer caused by the emotional trauma of World War II, including the murder of his grandparents during the Holocaust. King George VI’s success overcoming his stammer inspired him . He began researching the story in the 1970s and 80s but abandoned it after the Queen Mother asked him not to pursue the project during her lifetime. After she died in 2002, he returned to it. David discovered his own uncle was also a stutterer, who had been sent to see Lionel Logue by David’s grandfather. At a reading of the play in London’s small Pleasance Theatre in 20015 to a group of Australian expats, Tom Hooper’s mother was present and contacted her son with his “next project”.

Tom asked David to develop the screenplay. It went on to win the BAFTA and the Best Picture Oscar, however the play was left unproduced until 2012.

It made its West End premiere at Wyndhams Theatre in March after a UK tour and strong reviews. It featured Charles Edwards as the King, Jonathan Hyde as Lionel, Emma Fielding (Queen Elizabeth), Joss Ackland (George V) and Ian McNeice (Winston Churchill).

They all signed this sketch on the 12 May 2012 after the final performance.

Drawing: Stephen Merchant in The Mentalists at Wyndham’s Theatre

Posted on July 8, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Stephen Merchant

Stephen Merchant embarked on his West End theatre debut last week in the revival of Richard Bean’s 2002 comedy THE MENTALISTS at Wyndham’s Theatre, saying it was a great chance to do some “proper acting”.

The BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning ‘lanky comic’, (as TimeOut described him) shares the stage with GAVIN AND STACEY’s Steffan Rhodri in a two-hander about a fanatical man called Ted (Stephen) armed with his trusty video camera and Morrie (Steffan), an off-duty hairdresser with wild fantasies , holed up in a Finsbury Park hotel, filming utopian messages that could go global.

Stephen is best-known for his collaborations with Ricky Gervais on THE OFFICE, EXTRAS, LIFE’S TOO SHORT and AN IDIOT ABROAD as well as their cult podcast series. When asked by TimeOut was he nervous about his theatrical debut, Stephen replied, ‘I’ll probably regret ever doing it within two days, because I’ll just be so tired. But my grandfather was a builder and my dad was a plumber, which is proper work, so I’m not going to fuss about two hours a night”.

Well, that philosophical approach got an early test. On the second night he sustained stage damage, emerging from the theatre holding an ice-pack, or some anti-inflammatory pad…or maybe just a face-cloth…either way it was covering a wound on the lower arm of his signing wing! Yikes. A theatre assistant muttered something about a burn. However it merely slowed things a little as Stephen graciously signed and posed for selfies for the sizeable crowd waiting. I felt a bit guilty asking him to add a dedication as well, but he was happy to oblige.

Sketch: American Buffalo at Wyndham’s Theatre

Posted on May 24, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

American Buffalo

Sheffield Theatre’s Daniel Evans production of David Mamet’s 1970s classic American Buffalo opened at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre last month starring Damian Lewis, John Goodman and Tom Sturridge. The play examines “the fickle nature of humour among theives as three small time crooks plan one big time heist, a tragedy of errors spins this razor sharp and darkly funny play into a blistering account of divided loyalties, insatiable greed and a coveted Buffalo nickel”.

Damian, John and Tom had signed a portrait drawing I did of them after the opening night’s performance. This sketch is more of a character montage, which they also signed for me this week.

Sketch: American Buffalo

Posted on April 28, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

American Buffalo

A top drawer cast of Damian Lewis, Tom Sturridge and, making his West End debut, John Goodman, star in the revival of David Mamet’s 1975 breakthrough play American Buffalo, which had its opening last night at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre.

It was last seen in the West End more than 30 years ago when Al Pacino lead the cast at the Duke of York’s Theatre.

At the centre of this modern masterpiece is an old American five-cent nickel, a “buffalo”, which John’s character; Don, the owner of a Chicago junk store where the action is set; has undersold. Convinced he has been ripped off, Don plans to track down the customer and plans a heist to get it back, with his less than useless ‘associates’ – mouthy no hoper “Teach” (Damian) and nervy young gopher Bob (Tom).

The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish had a nice line in his review, “an expletive-laden law and music unto itself, the loose-change of inarticulate conversation spun into glinting gems of urban poetry – the true, harsh sound of American capitalism”.

The Guardian gave it four stars, with Michael Billington saying, “Daniel Evans’ production is meticulous in its psychological and physical detail and there are fine performances from Damian Lewis, John Goodman and Tom Sturridge”.

I managed to get all three to sign my drawing after the first preview performance a couple of weeks ago. Tom has now shaven his head, but I couldn’t find my eraser to do the ‘shave’ on the the sketch, so I’ll just have to draw another one.

Sketch: Lydia Wilson, Oliver Chris, Richard Goulding and Tafline Steen in King Charles III

Posted on March 4, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

The smash hit play, King Charles III, Mike Barlett’s mock Shakespearean play about a constitutional crisis when Charles succeeds his mother after her death. Time called it a “future history play”.

Directed by Rupert Goold, the pitch perfect production premiered at London’s Almeida Theatre on 10 April 2014, before transferring to Wyndham’s in the West End for a short sell out run late last year.

“It won’t blow the palace sky high. But it’s theatrical dynamite, nonetheless,” said Caroline McGinn in Time Out.

Lydia Wilson’s manipulating Duchess of Cambridge with a touch of Lady Macbeth puts pressure on Oliver Chris’s uncanny William to intervene in his father’s refusal to uphold Parliament’s decisions. Richard Goulding’s likeable and restless Harry falls in love with the liberating but ultimately unstable Jess, a punky republican art student played by Tafline Steen.

Drawing: Nicholas Rowe in King Charles III at Wyndham’s Theatre

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

British actor Nicholas Rowe is currently part of the brilliant cast appearing in Rupert Goold‘s popular production KING CHARLES III at London’s Wyndham Theatre.

Mike Bartlett’s play imagines what might happen if the Queen dies and the Prince of Wales becomes King, written mostly in blank verse.

Charles Spencer in The Telegraph describes it as the “most spectacular, gripping and wickedly entertaining piece of ‘lese-majeste’ that British theatre has ever seen.”

Nicholas plays the wily and deeply devious Leader of the Opposition who suggests to Charles that he refuse his Royal consent to a privacy law imposing restrictions on the media.

Since he came to prominence as a nineteen year old in Steven Spielberg’s production of YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES, Nicholas has carved out a versatile career on both stage and screen, including LOCK,STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS, DA VINCI’S DEMONS, MIDSOMER MURDERS, HOTEL BABYLON and HAMLET.

I was waiting at the Wyndham’s stage door which is located on a very busy alley-way, next to the Leicester Square tube station. It was the first saturday of the new year, approaching 2 pm, so the pre-matinée rush was on. However it was easy to pick Nicholas out from the crowd because of his height and distinctive looks and the fact he was casually strolling towards the stage door, albeit slowly as he stopped to chat to people. He was very friendly as we discussed all manner of things from politics to future projects as he happily signed my sketch before heading in to do his bit for the constitutional crisis.

Drawing: Katie Brayben and Margot Leicester in Charles III at Wyndham’s Theatre

Posted on January 3, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Mike Bartlett’s audacious new play, King Charles III about the ascension of Prince Charles to the throne after Elizabeth II passes on, resulting in a constitutional crisis, royal family meltdown and ultimately a British coup. It is also a bold play, written as a Shakespearean piece in iambic pentameter. It made its world premiere at the Almeida Theatre, London in April 2014 before transferring to Wyndham’s in the West End until March this year.

Amongst the faultless cast assembled by director Rupert Goold are Olivier nominated Margot Leicester and singer/songwriter Katie Brayben.

Writing in The Telegraph, Dominic Cavendish stated, “the cast are uniformly excellent. There’s a 24 carat contribution from Margot Leicester as a funny, fawning but unmistakably feisty Camilla”. Katie plays the stalking, black veiled ghost of Princess Diana. She will soon be seen playing the legendary Carole King in the Broadway hit musical Beautiful at the Aldwych next month.

Both Katie and Margot signed their respective sketches at the stage door after a Saturday evening performance before Christmas.

Drawing: Rupert Gould

Posted on November 7, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Rupert Goold

The old adage, ‘if you want something done, give it to a busy person,’ certainly applies to pioneering English theatre director Rupert Goold. The artistic director of London’s Almeida Theatre and associate director at the Royal Shakespeare Company had two hit shows open weeks apart on the West End. After premiering at the Almeida, Mike Bartlett’s controversial play King Charles III transferred to the Wyndham’s Theatre on Charring Cross Road. It confronts the difficult question of what will happen when the Queen dies and a possible constitutional crisis ensues.

Rupert also directs the new musical Made in Dagenham with Gemma Arterton leading a feisty feminist strike force at the Ford auto factory in the east London suburbs. It’s the stage version of the popular feel good 2010 movie and opened on Guy Fawkes night this week.

As is custom, my wife and I celebrated our wedding anniversary with a slice of theatre. The precedent is a Shakespeare play, but this year for a slight deviation we went and saw King Charles III, which pays homage to the Bard, written in a blank verse style. I did this sketch of Rupert winning his Olivier a while back. He won the 2008 award for Best Director for the acclaimed Minerva Studio staging of Macbeth with Patrick Stewart in the title role.

It just so happened I had it in my bag that night – the same evening Made in Dagenham had its press night. Another deviation as we strolled to the train station, past the Adelphi Theatre stage door, where only minutes later the said director appeared with a large grin, indicating a successful opening (the show, not his mouth). A good time to get my sketch signed, which he was more than happy to do.

I immediately congratulated him on Charles III, which in hindsight seemed an odd thing to say at the premiere of his other show. That’s what happens when you’re the busiest director in town!