EDINBURGH 2017: BWW Q&A- Trainspotting Live

BWW speaks to Adam Spreadbury-Maher, co-director of Trainspotting Live and Artistic Director of King's Head Theatre ahead of their run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Tell us a bit about the staging of Trainspotting live.

Every single venue is different. That's the beauty of this production, every time we open in a new space, we're able to bring some fresh to the production. Trainspotting in Bristol's Loco Club is a completely different experience from Trainspotting at the Vaults in Waterloo... I'd like to think that that's what's sustained the show's energy and vitality for over 600 performances and counting!

Why do you think there's still such demand for Trainspotting twenty years after its debut?

Addiction is part of the human condition so we'll never tire of stories that explore it but there is a particular, inexplicable magic about Trainspotting. On the one hand it's so clearly a product of its time; it's pretty much peak nineties! On the other hand, I think there's something about Irvine's writing that cuts through and demands immediacy. I guess that's why it lends itself so well to an immersive stage adaptation, it has a vivid, stirring sense of place but simultaneously, kind of exists right now, right in front of you. Even in a hundred years, I don't think it will feel like a period piece.

Dare I ask how "immersive" the toilet scene is?

It can be as immersive as you want it to be, depending upon where you're sat.

Would you recommend comes to see Trainspotting Live?

The most rewarding thing about working on this show has been the staggering range of people that come to see. I'm always overwhelmed to see eighteen year olds bunched together with eighty year olds and humbled to have as many first-time theatregoers through the doors as we do stalwarts of the stage. It's for everyone.

...and who would you recommend doesn't come to see it?

It's a poetic, cinematic, roller-coaster ride soundtracked to pumping nineties music. Who wouldn't want to see that?

Trainspotting Live is at The Tunnel at Venue 150, 2-27 August trainspottinglive.com

Photo Credit: Geraint Lewis

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