YOUR GUIDE TO EDINBURGH'S FESTIVALS
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
ED2016 5/5 Reviews ED2016 Theatre Reviews
Trainspotting (Kings Head Theatre and In Your Face Theatre)
By Patricia-Ann Young | Published on Tuesday 9 August 2016
The first ten minutes of this stage adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s novel ‘Trainspotting’ offers some of the most arresting, exhilarating theatre you’ll probably see in years, never mind just at this year’s Festival. Pushed together in a claustrophobic space, the audience are pushed, prodded, cuddled and screamed at by the cast, an experience so immersive and riling one audience member stormed out. But the manic highs of the first half give way to the terrible, soul breaking lows of a life shackled to addiction, with Gavin Ross’ central, electric performance as Renton pulling the audience into that emotional turmoil. A show worthy of its hype, ‘Trainspotting’ is more of a sensory experience than a theatre production.
Assembly George Square Studios, until 29 Aug.
tw rating 5/5 | [Patricia-Ann Young]
