This collaborative theatre production (Kings Head Theatre and In Your Face) of Irvine Welsh’s famously controversial novel, Trainspotting, is f*cking phenomenally f*cking bad ass good!

If you happen to be a fan of the novel or the Trainspotting films f*cking go and see the f*cker! Even if you are a stranger to the story go anyway. We shit you not, it is worth selling your smack addicted Scottish granny to pay for theatre this f*cking brilliant. This reviewer doesn’t normally swear but he swears you will have the f*cking time of your theatrical life in this immersive production directed by Adam Spreadbury-Maher from an adaptation by Harry Gibson.

So, leaving the F word aside for a paragraph or two let’s consider why this one act show is so powerfully good. First of all the acting is raw and graphically stunning. You would never want to meet any of these drug addicted young people in a dark and dirty syringe littered Edinburgh back alley. However, the way the audience are involved in every scene, it is as near to the real experience you could have with the safety net of knowing it is acting – not bleak reality.

Saying that, the acting in Trainspotting is some of the most dynamic and truthful this reviewer has ever had the joy of seeing. There are top class performances from all the company including the versatile Rachael Anderson (June/Ensemble), Finlay Bain (Mother Superior), Chris Dennis (a truly menacing Begbie), Greg Esplin (superb as ill fated Tommy), Michael Lockerbie (Sick Boy), Erin Marshall (feisty, unpredictable and sympathetic as Allison) and finally the superb Gavin Ross as Renton.

Expect to laugh a lot, expect to dodge showers of beer, expect to be appalled at the cascade of gross contents in the ‘worse toilet in the world’ and expect to be happy to be verbally abused by the characters. Expect the unexpected from this stunning cast and expect to be much more emotionally engaged than you ever thought.

This production of Trainspotting is beautifully brave and at times startlingly poetic. You’ll go in wearing the earplugs provided and come out on a massive high. If any production deserves a prolonged standing ovation this f*cker does, with big hairy knobs on.

Trainspotting contains, profanities, authentic Edinburgh accents, some full nudity and scenes of drug taking and violence. Suitable for 16+

Trainspotting runs at Curve Leicester 20-24 June 2017.

Reviewer: Phil Lowe

PS: Phil Lowe apologises for the use of the F word in this f*cking review. He f*cking well got carried away with beauty of the profanities used in the production.