Trainspotting at The Vaults Review

Trainspotting at The Vaults

Choose life. 

Anyone over a certain age – namely mine – knows where these two words come from, and what comes next. 

But the live show incarnation of Trainspotting at The Vaults might just have a few surprises for even the illest sick boys and girls out there. 

For anyone too young to remember – which seems to be half the people in my life these days, Trainspotting is the tale of a bunch of Scottish twentysomething heroin addicts who choose drugs over life. 

There’s Renton, the eponymous anti-hero of this story and human shaped vessel for the audience to follow on his scag based journey of self destruction. 

We’ve got Begbie, the most terrifying Scotsman since Mel Gibson donned some blue paint and a kilt; Sick Boy, the Sean Connery mimicking brains behind the operation who appears to take – and give up – drugs merely as a way to mock his friends.

And then there’s Tommy, the straight one of the bunch who plays the tourist amongst this bunch of addicts… until his own life goes tits akimbo. 

Renowned for its shocking and graphic depiction of life on the wrong side of Leith’s decidedly non leafy tracks, Trainspotting became one of the most iconic films of the nineties that launched the film career of Ewan McGregor amongst others.

And the live show is no exception.

Ever wanted to get up close and personal with the worst toilet in Scotland? 

This is the show for you.

How about taking an eyeful from Spud’s shit stained duvet? 

Well, you’ll have to settle for Rent boy’s faeces in the name of creative licence, but that’s here too. 

And if you’re really lucky, you might just get a condom that’s been half way up Renton’s jacksie flung at your face.

Never have I been happier for my seats to be at the rear of a venue

These shock and awe tactics are only part of the ride though, and there’s still a story to be told about the desperate nature of drug addiction as well as the desperate choices people are faced with when they’re born into poverty.

Trainspotting at The Vaults

That’s the joke about ‘choosing life’ – it’s only those who are born with the right name and into the right postcode that get to choose.

Everyone else just gets screwed… and once you’ve worked that out, the idea of using drugs and heroin to escape this misery seems like the only logical choice you can make.

Good thing we’re not living in an age of self-inflicted austerity by a ruling, wealthy elite that’s creating new generations of trainspotters ever single day, eh… oh.

Nevermind, if you can’t afford some scag, why not step into the immersive experience that is Trainspotting at The Vaults – I can guarantee you’ll get an eyeful.

And if you can afford some heroin, then you definitely need to see this show… if only to get up close and personal with the lesser of two evils.

Jonathan Campbell

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April 2018
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