Trainspotting Live is a brilliant comment on drug addiction, the use of violence just to survive, domestic abuse and obscene poverty. This interactive, immersive experience is not for the faint-hearted or easily shocked as bed linen covered with human excrement and used condoms are thrown into the audience which is also confronted by members of the cast coming face to face with it and hollering abuse.
But the show is also hugely comic with Adam Spreadbury-Maher, under Greg Esplin’s sharp and brutal direction, pushing real boundaries which pose the question: ‘What is bad taste?’. Irvine Welsh’s original book and this adaptation by Harry Gibson is provocative, powerful and poetic with the cast delivering the dialogue with the speed of the Flying Scotsman hurtling down the track on full throttle.
The four standout characters are played by Frankie O’Connor as Renton, Chris Dennis as Begbie, Finlay Bain as Tommy and Andrew Still as Sickboy. They are so banded together like the Four Musketeers that their respective energy and total commitment to their roles adds an outstanding quality to this production. This performance is heart-pounding and stunning. A 75 minute adrenalin-fuelled, high impact assault on the senses. Simply fabulous!
****
Trainspotting Live runs to Sunday 3rd June at The Vaults, Leake Street, London SE1 7NN. Box office 020 7402 9603 trainspottinglive.com
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