THE Upstart Theatre Company will set Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 18th century high-society comedy The School For Scandal in a trendy 1960s bar in next month’s production in York.

Explaining this decision, director and cast member Clancy McMullan reasons: “Celebrity gossip and scandal are themes as pertinent today as they were in Sheridan’s day. Add to the mix the heady days of the 1960s and you have the perfect backdrop for this play from 1777.”

After staging its inaugural production of Arnold Ridley’s The Ghost Train at the Upstage Theatre, 41 Monkgate, last September, Upstart will return there with The School For Scandal from February 4 to 8.

In Upstart’s version, money, sex, scandal and gossip fuel the lives of the Barton Club’s members and hangers-on in the early 1960s.

Reformed old bachelor Sir Peter Teazle (played by Ian Giles) and his new young wife, Lady Teazle (Victoria Delaney), together with the incorrigible rake Charles Surface (Jacco Thijssen) and bookish beatnik Maria (Naomi Lombard), are preyed on by master manipulator Lady Sneerwell (Rachel Alexander-Hill) and the minions she commands.

What will happen when Sir Oliver (Mike Hickman), rich uncle and benefactor to Charles and his brother Joseph (Daniel Wilmot), returns from the East Indies to bestow his inheritance? Will he choose Charles, whose extravagance has left him renting rooms above the bar, or Joseph, a man of sentiments, who is universally well regarded, Sir Peter’s favourite and suitor to Maria?

Will newly married Lady Teazle take Joseph for her society lover? What underhanded schemes will Charles and Joseph Surface employ to ensure their own futures? And what secrets does the widow, Lady Sneerwell, hide from the web of scandalous society, of which she is the epicentre?

McMullan’s cast also will feature Janice Barnes-Newton as Miss Verjuice; Katy Devine as Mrs Candour; Jack Hoyland as Careless; Paul Mason as Mason; Clancy McMullan herself as Rowley; Andrew Quarrell as Sir Benjamin Backbite and Jamie Searle as Crabtree.

“All but Jon Adams and Matt Simpson of the nine company founder members are involved in this production, and we’re delighted to have a number of additional actors and crew members from the community and beyond joining our ranks to help bring Sheridan’s play to life,” says Clancy.

She is accompanied in the production team by assistant director Katy Devine; stage manager Shaun Bradley; deputy stage manager David Bahrani-Peacock; designer Mark Jackson and sound designer Malcolm Poole. Rachel Alexander-Hill will be designing the costumes, assisted by Katy Devine.

The Upstart Theatre Company was founded last January and is modelled on the repertory format, whereby actors have come together to form and fund the company in up to three plays a year, including school set texts.

As shown by The School For Scandal, productions will include actors and crew members who are not part of Upstart, and it will be company policy to do so wherever possible or necessary.

Upstart also intends to revive well-known plays seldom performed in York, the first two productions being perfect examples of this aim.

• Tickets for next month’s 7.30pm evening performances and 2.30pm Saturday matinee cost £11 on 01904 674675 or 07525 019053 or online at upstart.ticketsource.co.uk/