Trainspotting The Musical Tickets

CHOOSE PHONES OFF. CHOOSE BEING IN THE MOMENT. CHOOSE LIFE. The Tannoy at the Theatre Royal Haymarket commands in a familiar Leith drawl, instantly conjuring the unmistakable spirit and affection of Irvine Welsh’s culturally enduring, 1993 novel, Trainspotting. This time revived in its most unexpected form yet, polarising on a good day, a musical. Nostalgia and adoration both palpable, the audience descends into whooping and applause as the lights dim and a neon t-shirt-clad (slightly more jacked than junkie) Renton takes the stage. 

A New Pulse for Trainspotting

Emerging on stage as our protagonist and intermittent narrator, Mark Renton (played by Lewis Kidd), is our guide through the flawed characters and splintered relationships at the heart of Welsh’s story; against the backdrop of the schemes and social clubs of 1980s Leith, Edinburgh. Following his undeniably extreme, yet resonant circle of friends, as they navigate the disillusionment of Thatcher’s Britain; a world of no jobs, no prospects, no hope and the ultimate consensus, no point. No point, that is, until heroin offers the fleeting promise of escape.

Among them are Sick Boy, the charismatic, self-serving manipulator (mainly of women), the jittery, kinder-hearted, yet ultimately failing Spud, boyish and romantic, but naively doomed Tommy; and Francis Begbie, the roughest diamond of them all, a violently loose-cannon who, while wielding a pint glass and switchblade any chance he gets, remains unflappable in his moral anti-heroin stance throughout. Their female counterparts, Kelly, Lizzy, and Alison, while more initially hopeful and ambitious are burdened differently by relationships, pregnancy, and grief, and equally, if not more so, bear the fallout of the hopeless era and its zombifying medicine on offer. Trainspotting the Musical remains a story about addiction, friendship, betrayal, and the search for purpose in a world that promises little to anyone who bothers.

It’s a tall order in the shadow of a generation-defining novel and an acclaimed film that embodied the angsty zeitgeist of 1990s Britain. And it’s not the raw gritty realness evoked in Welsh’s original words, or the kinetic, restless chaos of Danny Boyle’s 1996 direction, it’s something new. Written by Welsh and brought to life by Caroline Jay Ranger’s direction, Stephen McGuinnes’ music, and Colin Richmond’s set, the West End production offers a fresh humorous and heartwarming, yet equally spirited adaptation.

Thirty years on from the film, Trainspotting: The Musical is officially in rehearsal. The brand new musical is written by Irvine Welsh, the original writer of the Trainspotting book. This time, we’re taking it back to the nineties, Scotland.