Trainspotting

Image supplied by FLW Theatre. 

It’s hard (or scary) to believe that it’s been eighteen years since Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting blazed across cinema screens, revitalising the British film industry and becoming a benchmark for the Cool Britannia or Brit Pop movement. Catapulting Irvine Welsh’s massive cult novel into the public conscience in the process, the film, its soundtrack (remember Orbital?) and its pre-viral marketing campaign have since become 90s staples. Neither the film nor novel need any introduction – but what is lesser known is that between adaptations, Renton and company took their heroin-injecting, wise-cracking, wasted lives to the stage before the screen, premiering at the Traverse Theatre in 1994. It is this version that FLW Theatre has produced in Melbourne.

Adapted by Harry Gibson, the stage version eschews the (in)famous ‘Choose Life’ speech as well as characters Spud and Diane, is less plot-driven and more monologue-heavy, allowing more emphasis on the musicality of Welsh’s poetry. It runs like a series of vignettes, clearly betraying its novelistic roots, but each character’s arch flows naturally despite the structure.

Following on from his recent success with Out of Gas On Lover’s Leap, director Ryan A. Murphy again injects the production with energy, detail and a dynamic imagination. Here he brings the best out of his cast with an exceptional central performance from Jules O’Donnell as Mark Renton and a fiery Ross Dwyer as Franco Begby. As Renton, O’Donnell provides humour, charisma, variety and subtlety to the role, making it his own – a big ask as he is onstage almost the entire duration of the play. Daniel Treloar’s lighting design is sparse and understated providing the sense of voyeurism to these troubled lives.

The set is simple and unobtrusive with the use of colourful plastic crates and a bed to make up the various locations around Edinburgh, and in true Trainspotting tradition, the contemporary soundtrack ranges from blood-pumping to haunting and dreamlike.

Trainspotting has aged well and this graphic but nevertheless charming version brings a new edge to the familiar story. I’m happy to say that it includes many sections and scenes from the novel that couldn’t make it into the film – namely the meaning of the title. This is a refreshing production from an exciting director with a promising future.