Upstage marks 20th anniversary with 39 Steps
January 27th, 2012 | Published in Features
A detail from this year's poster
Grenoble Life editor James Dalrymple met with Grenoble’s foremost English theatre group, Upstage, to find out about their 20th anniversary plans. Here is what he has to report.
Just before Christmas I had the pleasure of meeting David Simpson, Claude Deladoeuille and Katherine Upjohn of Upstage, all buzzing with excitement about this year’s production, which coincides with the theatre group’s 20th anniversary.
For the 2012 anniversary production the Upstage team have chosen Patrick Barlow’s farcical stage adaptation of The 39 Steps, based on John Buchan’s 1915 novel and the 1935 film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock. As always, the choice of play depends on the possibility of featuring an ensemble cast comprising a balance between male-female roles and major-minor parts, while providing a contrast to the year before (Upstage 2011 was a production of Arthur Miller’s comparatively laugh-free The Crucible). Although Patrick Barlow’s script requires four actors to share a multitude of roles, Upstage have reworked it for a cast of 11 in what promises to be a “heady mixture of suspense, romance and espionage,” and, of course, laughs.
The other news is that Upstage is now an association which, while continuing to draw its cast and crew and from pupils of the International Lycée at Cité Internationale Scolaire, is now also officially independent from it. While this change of status will change little ostensibly for the time being, in the future Upstage looks set to become more open to individuals and organisations outside the framework of CSI.
Now that Upstage’s structure has changed, so too has the scale of its ambition. With previous alumni returning to offer their support, the team emphasizes the transformative “blossoming” effect Upstage has on its participants, some of whom have gone on to study at renowned film and theatre schools. One such former Upstage actor, Matias Gaggiotti, will be returning to direct two new Upstage productions in collaboration with Le Créarc (Centre de Création de Recherche et des Cultures) for the annual festival in Grenoble, Les Rencontres du Jeune Théâtre Européen, 5–14 July 2012. Watch this space for news on that.
Casting is already in place and members of the public are welcome at rehearsals, which are well under way. The team are, however, thus far holding their cards close to their chest as concerns how they plan render for the stage – among other spectacular things – a plane crash, a fight on a moving train, Scotch mist, and scenes that take place on a mile-long bridge. As always, Upstage promises imaginative solutions to these demands, with lighting and sound to be provided by a technical crew which is also drawn from the English section at CSI. While this year’s participants have sworn not to watch the Hitchcock film and to interpret the Patrick Barlow script their own way, the team will be hoping to better the movie’s authentic 1930s costume aesthetic.
Watch this space, or the Petit Bulletin, for news on performances; tickets will be made available at the usual outlets (FNAC, Carrefour, Géant, U).
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