A German film about an angel who falls in love with a trapeze artist doesn't sound like the most likely, or even most suitable, basis for a stage show.

But Northern Stage Ensemble director Alan Lyddiard is turning Wings of Desire, the 1987 award-winning film by Wim Wenders, into the Newcastle-based company's most ambitious multi-media production yet.

As well as a cast of 60, featuring both the professional ensemble and the company's performance group from the community, the production involves six projectors screening film shot around Newcastle and an aerialist, Chantal Daly, as the trapeze artist.

"I keep thinking of it as a visual poem," says Lyddiard, who is adapting and directing the production.

Neil Murray's set, on which film will be projected, is a massive flight of stairs as wide as the Newcastle Playhouse stage and stretching ten metres or so into the air. Daly will fly over the front of the stage - and over the audience too, at some points.

Part of the inspiration came from Lyddiard seeing a touring piece by a German choreographer at Sadler's Wells, London, which featured members of the community who are aged over 60.

"I said I wanted to make a big piece involving lots of people from the community, from people in the performance group who've been working with Northern Stage on a regular basis," he explains.

"It seemed Wings Of Desire was a good idea because it's a very simple story against a backdrop of a city and its people. All I had to do was transfer it from Berlin to Tyneside."

The Berlin of the film is still divided by a wall and he sees the River Tyne as serving a similar partition between Newcastle and neighbouring Gateshead. "There's this sense of crossing from one city to another that's reflected in the relationship between the two. I play with that in the show," he says.

"There's a rivalry that comes into the piece too, but it's basically about people in a city and their stories against the backdrop of an angel coming to earth and falling in love with a trapeze artist. It's a very good, poetic story."

Lyddiard says: "I'm re-writing lots of the film because I've got stories from those members of the community I'm working with and putting them into the script - people going to the dentist, breaking up, dying, falling in love, sitting on the Metro wondering if they're going to be able to pay the next bill. You see them live on stage and on film."

A team has been filming in and around the city for several months, and the results will be projected on to the set. "It will be very beautiful to look at. All my work starts from visual impact," he adds.

"I like working with a lot of people. It makes for far more dramatic, epic theatre. I'm not as keen on two people talking in suits. I've been rehearsing the community actors in the evenings. It feels like a party, although I get irritated at times and I'm sure they get irritated by me. I've worked with them quite a lot over the past five years.."

He feels that now is the perfect moment to stage such an ambitious multi-media production. "It's the right time, the right company and the technology is cheaper than it ever was before," he says.

Part of him also hopes Wings Of Desire on stage has a life after and outside Newcastle. He can envisage producing versions in major cities all over the world, using a mix of professional and community performers with film shot in each city.

Steve Pratt

* Wings Of Desire: Newcastle Playhouse, September 9-19. Tickets 0191 230 5151.