Not many premières are held in Crewe; nor do they make many movies in this Cheshire redbrick town best known for railways and Rolls-Royces.
But tomorrow night the red carpet will be rolled out at Crewe's Lyceum theatre for the first screening of Upstaged, a full-length feature film shot entirely in Crewe in the summer of 2003.
Comedian Phil Cool will be there, but more for the glitz than the money: he was not paid a penny for the three roles he played. Nor was Alexei Sayle, who plays a police officer, nor Hildegard Neil, who plays wise Aunt Mary who dies of cancer.
"Hildegard starred in Hollywood in Antony and Cleopatra with Charlton Heston. And now she is starring in Crewe in Upstaged with Phil Cool. So things are improving for her, really," said Cool.
Upstaged cost a mere £50,000: not much for a Hollywood mogul, but a lot of cash for David Collins, principal of South Cheshire College in Crewe, to invest in a media lecturer and 100 students who make up the cast and most of the technical team.
"Our film is about fighting against the odds to achieve something worthwhile," said lecturer Andrew Walkington, director of Upstaged. "This is reflected in the lives of the students who made the film.
"The students and community of Crewe have put a great deal of creativity into this project. This is a film made by ordinary people about ordinary people."
Upstaged, which contains no effing or snorting, and has only a couple of very chaste kisses, may not be a true picture of the daily lives of the youth of Crewe; but its innocent sentimentality says much about the aspirations of student actors and technicians living in an untrendy town as they try to make their way in the performing arts.
"It's very difficult for kids to get a foothold these days without going through a lot of years of slog," added Cool. "It took me 11 years to get a break on television, so I know what it's like myself."
Illusion and reality become entwined in 90 minutes in which someone says, "First time I've heard of anyone having to get to Crewe", with the clear implication that most people are going the other way.
Edinburgh hopes
A TV news reporter, sensing a big story that could help him escape the town, cries: "This could be my ticket to Newsnight."
The plot centres on a young actor's wish to stage, and play the lead in, Macbeth at the Lyceum. His friend, a club DJ, plays Banquo (and Mentieth, Lennox, and a tree). They find a director (who is blind), and eventually a cast, after auditions in which a petrified hopeful endlessly repeats: "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow..." Cue trials, tribulations, chaos, and quite a lot of improbable coincidences. When disaster strikes at the Lyceum, and the cast end up in the street outside, the cry goes up: "Let's do the play right here!" And they do.
"If you liked Billy Elliot, Brassed Off, and The Full Monty, you'll love this," is what the critics might say if a hoped-for screening at the Edinburgh festival comes off. "The film has that feeling of a small, insignificant town where people have dreams, aspirations and talent," said Walkington, after admitting that the story parallels his own experience of finding his way in the world of film, and that he once directed a studio production of Macbeth.
"It was a fantastic experience," said Will Forster, 19, who plays the young actor manager. "I hope the film will help me get a step closer to where I want to be - I want to direct plays. My character relates to my own attempts to get into the theatre." His sidekick, John Montegrande, who, if there were any justice, should win an Oscar for best supporting performance, added: "Once in the film, I was sinking my teeth into every moment and going to give it everything I had."
In another case of life imitating art, the Crewe film has had to change its name. It was to be called Just My Luck until they discovered a film with the same title in production in the US. When they realised they had been upstaged, they also knew they had a new title.
