I wanted to take my kid who’s old enough now to share in some of the cultural things that made an impression on me as a youth, to see something at the Edinburgh Festival.
But memory has a way of missing out on any of the suspect bits of those experiences, and I still don’t seem to learn. From putting on Pulp Fiction, “You’ll love this!” and cowering in the ‘bad parent’ corner when THAT SCENE comes on, to pressing play on Bridesmaids, “You’ll LOVE IT! It’s just so hilarious” only to subject my child to an entire five-minute naked shagging scene while we both died inside… trying to click fast-forward and IT KEPT REFESHING THE SCENE.
Well, you’d have hoped, you’d have THOUGHT, I’d have learned something about not trusting my rose-tinted memories. So when I clicked the Trainspotting Live link and booked the tickets, I said to my kid, “YOU’LL LOVE IT! It’s all about local lads getting into a spot of mischief; it’s a tremendous romp!” (Or words to that effect.)
In the queue, wearing our glow bands and listening to the 90s rave muffled through the walls, I was hyped.
It wasn’t until we were ushered through a high-octane warehouse-style rave and into our bench seat that I realised I’d done it again. As I approached where I’d be sitting, the true horrors of the book and the film came back to me with one grotesque prop that I was seated right next to.
The toilet. THAT TOILET. YES, the one in THAT SCENE full of human swill and plastered with jobbies. Oh god. I tried, oh, I tried to squeeze up and make space between me and the bog as I knew what action might unfold there, and I was scared. Or, maybe it was just a prop. Maaaaaybe it was just a visual representation of the play…
Cue the start of the show, and bang, we’re at a full-on rave, energy is high, the atmosphere febrile, we might have been spiked, and my heart is beating fast. The cast is high octane fucked up madness and then comes the first nudity, the female lead flashes her boobs and I’m thinking, that’s pretty cool, and quite daring!
Oh, friends, I had NAE IDEA. I think back to that innocent me now and I can only shake my head with a sorry sigh.
The show is a sort of truncated version of the film, which is a truncated version of the book. So, some of the characters and scenes are mixed together, and the cast plays different parts. I think if I hadn’t seen the film I might have been a bit lost. I might have been absolutely shitting myself.
For the next 60 mins or more, we are treated to the most hideous and glorious onslaught of physical theatre, the boobs I saw earlier were a gentle prelude to the full shit-smeared nudity that ensued. Audience members had bums in their faces, puke, shit, smack-taking extravaganza, and my hope that the toilet I was seated next to was just for decoration was most definitely (pebble) dashed and well and truly part of the show.
Not ONLY did Renton sit naked right next to me to act out, clearing his three-week constipation… he also lost his pill and put his hand into the filth, throwing it all around! arghrghrghrghr holy SHIT!
I glanced at my kid; he looked grim. I wanted to cry, and I thought about leaving, but the performances of these five actors were utterly spellbinding. Hilarious, touching, so, so fucking professional and joyfully magnificent. I was rooted to the spot. Mesmerised by the horror unfolding. And wow, it unfolded!
And then, it was over. I felt like I’d been run over. My body and mind had been taken places that only the most incredible actors can pull off. I had all the feels, and they all fell tumbling out of my eyeholes. The crowd simultaneously rose to its feet in applause and I was greetin’ ma face off. What a fucking show! I didn’t know what to do with myself – how on earth do these guys pull this off twice a night for the full Edinburgh Festival to a sell out crowd? I felt like they had put on an extra special show just for us, that level of brilliance couldn’t have been sustained for everyone, surely? But… from other reviews and chat, I suspect, they really are THAT brilliant.
It was horrible, and brilliant and, grotesque and beautiful.
Remembering I’m a mum who brought my kid to possibly the most inappropriate thing I ever could have, I asked, “What did you think?”
“Yeah, that was alright, that.”
Fucking high praise indeed.
A review of Trainspotting Live
Summary
Trainspotting Live is a spellbinding rampage of a show. A theatrical experience that pushes boundaries and left me devastated and in complete awe.
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