Trainspotting is Transporting
Review of Black Box Theatre’s production of “Trainspotting”
The Vault, Port Kembla.
August 7th 2014
By Geoffrey Sykes

The Black Box production of the Harry Gibson’s stage version of the Irving Welsh’s novel “Trainspotting” was outstanding and full of merit. The mainstay of its success were the consistently strong performances by the ensemble of Damien Carr, Taylor Beadle-Williams, Leigh Scully and Brendan Taylor. By the end of Act One any small misgivings about the script and its subject matter were erased by its polished, crisp and seamless delivery in the hands of the four young inner West Sydney actors.

Taylor Beadle-Williams

This production deserves to be seen by very many in Wollongong. “Trainspotting” was one of the best, arguably the best, independent production I can remember in Wollongong for many years.
– Geoffrey Sykes

Taylor Beadle-Williams delivered poignantly polished and lightly baked portrayals of four females – Alison, Lizzie, June, and Lizzie. Her short monologue vignettes in Act Two were stunning in their light grace and clarity. It is hard to believe that Leigh Scully stepped into the production, and his three diverse characters, only a week before the opening of Black Box’s Sydney Premiere in May. His presence in all roles was adroit, defined and commanding. Damien Carr well acquitted the lead role Mark Renton with a quiet reflexive presence. It was when Renton takes up a journal towards the end of Act One that the audience truly begins to identify with the characters and the motivation for their desperate addiction. Brendon Taylor was well up to the roles of his characters – his performance was lucid and strong.

It might sound gratuitous to praise the depiction of heroin addiction and its effects – but any reservations one might have about the theatrical merit of the subject matter of this play are well overcome by its delivery. The depiction of hallucinatory states was consummate and immediate. There is a strong rationale for plays about the gritty “underbelly” of society, including its drug culture. I have questions however about Gibson’s uneven treatment of his difficult subject. There were moments in the Second Act – of random, extreme violence and the prurient play with a tampon – that seem unmotivated and fail to engage the audience as well as many other moments in the play. The violence seems to offend our current sensitivity about “coward punches”.
Yet the production – including Luke Berman’s methodical and crisp direction – enhanced the script, and triumphed with whatever challenges the play presented.

The pioneering theatrical use of the Vault venue in Port Kembla was interesting, and worked well. The set worked, as well as the unusual spaces of the unused bank building. Lighting was limited but more than adequate. It is very pleasing to see this type of independent production in the Illawarra. The unkempt and deserted back lanes of Port Kembla – just outside the venue – raised a question. If this story of urban desperates was to be staged in an old industrial town why couldn’t a deserted shed, shop or warehouse be used for its staging? However the vault venue was part of Berman’s larger picture to stage more independent theatre in Wollongong – and the choice of this venue for that goal was not disappointing.
This production deserves to be seen by very many in Wollongong. “Trainspotting” was one of the best, arguably the best, independent production I can remember in Wollongong for many years.

THE RED KITCHEN – Wentworth Street Port Kembla

Popular Port Kembla cafe and restaurant The Red Kitchen will be open in the evenings to coincide with TRAINSPOTTING and have prepared an exciting menu of Scottish Comfort Food to get audience in the mood for the show.

Bookings are highly recommended and sittings are at 6pm. To book your seat call 0418 263 237 or email caroline@theredkitchen.com.au

Opening on Friday 8th and Saturday 9th August, and Friday 15th and Saturday 16th August from 6pm

Haven’t booked your ticket to the show? Buy your tickets online or reserve your seat to the show and pay on the night!

Menu

SCOTTISH COMFORT FOOD

Cheeses of Scotland Plate aka Local w/- Pickled onions and Oatcakes – $16

Main Dishes

Fife Miners Braised Beef Cheeks in Red Wine w/- Celeriac Mash – $19

Organic Haggis w/- Neeps ‘n Tatties & Whisky Sauce – $19

*Vegetarian Haggis available – $18

Pulled Lamb Shank & Barley Scotch Broth w/- Soda Bread – $17

*White & Black Pudding available with 1 weeks prior notice only

Sweeties

Tipsy Laird w/- Local Raspberries, Custard & South Coast Cream – $8.50

Caramel & Chocolate Shortbread w/- Vanilla Bean Ice Cream – $8.50

www.theredkitchen.com.au

THEATRE REVIEW: TRAINSPOTTING – KING ST THEATRE, NEWTOWN (08.05.14)

Last year marked the 20th anniversary of Irvine Welsh’s debut novel, Trainspotting. The story is about a bunch of junkies and a violent alcoholic. It was initially a cult book, was then a successful stage play and eventually was adapted into a blockbuster film starring Ewan McGregor. The first theatre production of Trainspotting took place in Edinburgh in 1994 and it has since gone on to win awards and audiences alike with various adaptations over time. The latest version comes courtesy of Black Box Theatre and Emu Productions. They’re presenting the Sydney premiere, which is based on Harry Gibson’s original, gritty stage play which looks set to become another cult favourite.

Trainspotting is not a story for the faint-hearted or easily offended. At King Street Theatre in Newtown, the audience were warned of the coarse language, violence and adult themes that is found in this confronting, abrasive and controversial production. This current adaptation is directed by Luke Berman (Playmates, Proof) and is heavily focused on the original stage performance rather than the novel or film (although the movie’s two most infamous scenes involving the toilet and the dead baby are brought here to intense, horrific life).

The cast is led by Damien Carr (A Glass Menagerie, Everynight Everynight), who plays the unemployed anti-hero, Mark Renton, plus some minor cameos. Carr proves to be engaging and charming as the primary storyteller and he is joined by a versatile cast. Taylor Beadle-Williams (Amnesia, Plans, The Crucible) plays every major female role while Leigh Scully (Home & Away, Rescue Special Operations) is Franco Begbie, Johnny Swan and Mrs Renton. Brendon Taylor (Antony & Cleopatra, As You Like It) also plays the callous Sick Boy, the unhinged Tommy Murphy and Morag “Jam Rag” Henderson.

The actors keep the mood electric, crisp and charged as they are forced to alternate between roles at the drop of a hat. They are convincing (both with their acting and Scottish accents). One minor issue on opening night however, was that there were a couple of fumbles over some difficult lines and a couple of problems with malfunctioning props (although the actors did brilliantly to keep pace when things went wrong).

This adaption features a series of brave vignettes that share the same consistent and focused energy on the junkie characters, their associates and most importantly, their dark lives. The story is in part narrated and it has some of the same witty, stream-of-conscious-style quotes that Welsh had originally penned. A case in point is the brilliant soliloquy: ‘Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family… I chose not to choose life. I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you’ve got heroin”’.

The set is very stark and minimal and is fitting when you consider the story’s depressed, economic setting (the 1980s in Edinburgh). A bed is used in the second part as a place of withdrawal as well as a coffin and there are also milk crates, the famed toilet and a graffiti-filled door. The background proves as confronting and gloomy as the actual tale. The use of music is also good. It’s occasionally used when the characters are taking trips and lends the proceedings a spaced-out, hypnotic feel, while at other moments songs like Blondie’s “Atomic”, Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” and Iggy Pop’s “Lust For Life” help create an excellent mood.

Over the years the Trainspotting book, film and play has divided critics as it is brutal, fearless and hell-bent on creating horror and destruction. This adaptation also manages to achieve this and is intense, raw and eye-opening. Not for the young or faint-hearted, Trainspotting looks at the difficulties of boredom and the tragedy of self-medication, addiction and poverty, while showing us how our choices can result in things that are like a cold, hard punch to the face.
Trainspotting plays at the King St Theatre, Newtown until May 24

TRAINSPOTTING – BLACK BOX THEATRE AND EMU PRODUCTIONS TAKE US TO THE DARK SIDE OF OURSELVES. (THEATRE REVIEW)

I saw Irvine Welsh at the Adelaide writers festival a few years back. He is an engaging speaker with a warm, generous personality, who puts up a convincing show of modesty. Among his many witty anecdotes was a consideration of the irony that much of his time is spent with Chuck Palahniuk on a semi-permanent “cult novel” tour of the United States, perpetually populated by mostly angry young men going through similar stages to the protagonists of the two novels made (in)famous by the film versions of the books. It’s a very pedestrian tale, and one the characters of neither novel would approve of, but that is the underlying point of Trainspotting – that the choice between conformity to society and living rebelliously on the margins is always one of self-destruction. When neo-conservatism came to the UK in the 70′s it inadvertently forged the punk movement, whose roots were anti-conformist. Like all counter-culture determined to make a “splash” it became replete with its own rules so that the phrase “punk is the non-conformists uniform” is more than a joke, but worse, the counter-culture becomes the shadow of conservatism, ultimately as conservative as the culture it seeks to subvert. Beliefs such as open misogyny, self-destruction, hedonism and a refusal of morality need their opposites to fight against, although the argument could successfully be made that none of these actions make you anti-establishment.

Yet, despite all this, Bob Dole famously made the accusations that Trainspotting makes “depravity” appealing, and this Irvine Welsh fan can’t help agree – not that I think there is anything wrong with that, however. I do think no choice has been made about one’s life unless you have really visited a moment in the alternative, and surely this is what art is for? There is no point claiming moral superiority over drug abstinence if you’ve never been interested, attracted to or indulged in the romance of the idea, for just a couple of days, through music, literature or theatre. Perhaps this is the real value in counter-culture, that there is a place to visit to test the options and make strong decisions about life? Bob Dole seems to have a propensity for drug use, otherwise how could he know to be afraid? Desire is always something we want and don’t want at the same time, always manufactured and almost always refused. When I watch or read Trainspotting, I wonder which aspect Bob Dole wanted more; going elbow deep into a slimy un-flushing toilet, or the dead baby? Trainspotting achieves what all great works of counter-culture achieve. It shows both sides of the agony of moral refusal, something it claims right from the start. “Smack,” says Mark Renton, “Is an honest drug, because it strips away the delusions. With smack, when you feel good you feel immortal. When you feel bad – you see the misery of the world as it really is. real life…” Perhaps Bob Dole is mostly afraid we’ll see real life, the negative side of heroin than the positive? Perhaps this is what he is afraid we will be most attracted to?

Before Trainspotting was a film by Danny Boyle and the possession of all of us, it was a successful piece of theatre. The books short stories made the move to theatre natural for the adaption by Harry Gibson. Proving that Trainspotting has lost none of its punch all these years later (we still live under neo-conservatism after all, we’ve just gotten better at accepting it) there is still a great pleasure to be had in dipping into the lives of Welsh’s anti-heroes for a little visit to the dark side of our chosen existence. Black Box theatre and Emu Productions have put together a mighty show, wonderfully performed and directed with so much vitality the spirit of, not just the book, but the movement thrives through each vignette. The entire cast is performed by Damien Carr as Renton, Brendon Taylor and Leigh Scully as the various other friends and Taylor Beadle-Williams taking several for the team as all the long-suffering women associated with this movement strangely forced to live with a deeply conservative misogyny (strangely, as does the so called Rap culture today that seems to imagine misogyny is subversive). Everyone is right on target, Scottish accents are consistently strong, the flitting in and out of alternate characters fluid and clear, the direction and performances speaking to the universals rather than focusing on Welsh’s specifics of Scottish politics. This small cast performing so many roles turns out to offer its own new and interesting take on something we may presume to know, in that a certain sort of amalgamating effect takes place as the effects of lifestyle turn everyone into everyone else, when the purpose was always to be different. There are perspectives offered under Luke Berman’s direction that can only come forward in theatre, and the success of the play shows just how well Irving Welsh’s tale is written. The set is versatile and eloquent in the way it offers up props out of its obvious sludge, again a perspective Luke Berman has been able to glean from the stage that other mediums couldn’t produce. A lot of thought and time has gone into this excellent, vibrant production and it shows.

Trainspotting may not always be the easiest night at the theatre – sometimes it’s horrifying enough to discover what you think is funny – but this is a true commitment to the tone of the original novel and the spirit of a movement that captured something elusive and potent that still tugs at societies underbelly today.

TRAINSPOTTING
Review #2 – THEATRE RED

Theatre is for people who can’t handle reality. But, though it can be mind altering, it’s a wiser choice than most illicit substances.

Thematically, this play shouldn’t interest me. I’ve never been much into drugs. (In fact, in 1996, whenever my friends would begin raving about the movie, I’d quietly slip away to the bar again.*)

But this production, directed by Luke Berman, is terrific. The cast of four create – with extraordinary energy, courage and commitment – the world of drug addled 80’s Edinburgh.

Damien Carr plays Mark (whose story we most closely follow) with a winning, empathy-inducing stage presence. Taylor Beadle-Williams plays an array of ‘lassies’; beautiful portraits of tough women doing it hard in a misogynistic culture. Brendon Taylor’s scene as an unwillingly witness to sexist violence, with his fear that he must intervene, is magic. Leigh Scully perfectly captures a variety of imposing and physically threatening male characters, only later to display an extraordinary range when he so convincingly plays Mark’s mother.

Harry Gibson’s adaptation of the original novel by Irvine Welsh is episodic, wide ranging, and frighteningly effective.

When Life has become a disease, whose symptoms are boredom and disappointment, a cure will be sought. This play presents the desperate measures people take to self medicate, often with catastrophic consequences.

This is confronting theatre. There’s sex, violence and two hours of Scottish accents. And it works.

It’s both funny and horrifying. It’s hard to imagine how anyone ever thought this tale glorified drug usage. It doesn’t preach – it’s far too cool for that – but honesty is the most powerful pedagogy.

As I began by saying, thematically this show shouldn’t be my cup of tea. I don’t have much patience with people who find Life dull and disappointing. (My parochialism, no doubt, the result of being privileged enough to sit around comfortably drinking too many cups of tea. And fine red wine.)

But this production is eye opening, sympathetic, electric.

And it does what theatre can do so well, throw open windows to other, sometimes harsher, realities.

Veronica Kaye

*Trainspotting is very conscious of the dangers of that most commonly abused of drugs – alcohol.

The first wave of reviews from the opening night of TRAINSPOTTING are in, with reviewers reporting a glowing report card for the opening night of Black Box Theatre and Emu Production’s Sydney Premiere of this cult classic.

Review #1 – SUZY GOES SEE

Venue: King Street Theatre (Newtown NSW), May 8 – 24, 2014
Playwright: Harry Gibson (based on the novel by Irvine Welsh)
Director: Luke Berman
Actors: Damien Carr, Taylor Beadle-Williams, Brendon Taylor, Leigh Scully

Theatre review
Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting is one of the defining cultural landmarks of the 1990s. From novel, to play, and eventually to the blockbusting hit film, its immense popularity and pervasiveness in landscapes the world over is testament not only to the quality of work by artists involved, but also to the way its story has resonated and subsequently appropriated as a sign of the times.

Black Box Theatre’s staging of the 1994 Harry Gibson adaptation seems, on the surface, to be an exercise in nostalgia. It is entirely too predictable to have a group of Gen-Y enthusiasts take on a cult classic that pushes the boundaries of decency, but what they have created is a work that is surprisingly relevant, and very well crafted indeed. Luke Berman’s direction is exciting, colourful and crisp. Scenes move along quickly but clearly, as though injected with adrenaline. The action is heightened and dynamic, but sentiments are always elucidated. Berman has a sensitivity that ensures the text’s many controversial elements are handled circumspectly, with just the right amount of restraint that keeps bad taste from turning unacceptable.

Berman’s cast is truly impressive. They are a fearless and captivating foursome, whose love for the art of performance is absolutely evident. By taking on multiple roles, they all receive significant stage time and are able to showcase creative versatility, but we are not always able to identify the characters being played, although it must be said, that this does not seem to alter the enjoyment of the work. Damien Carr plays Mark, the protagonist and narrator of the piece. The duality of simultaneously narrating the story and performing the scenes being described is fascinating, and Carr does a stellar job of it. He is on stage for virtually the entire duration, and is able to provide a consistently focused energy that keeps us engaged and involved. Taylor Beadle-Williams is magnificent in her roles. There is often a baroque exuberance in her work that articulates perfectly the aesthetic of Welsh’s hallucinatory world, but at the core of her performance is a fixation on truth, which gives all her characters a beautiful empathy that is irresistible.

Drug abuse and the “junkie” subculture is sadly, not a relic of the past. Trainspotting‘s articulation of that underworld satisfies our curiosity, telling us about the fringe dwellers who reside on our peripheries. We are reminded that the world is a shared one, and our beliefs about life are often fundamentally the same. Even when our values diverge, and our judgemental minds divide us, it is our common humanity that allows us to look into the experience of others, drawing parallels where they exist, and discovering through these diversities what is enduring, and what actually matters.

TRAINSPOTTING – OPENING NIGHT

One of literature and the screen’s most shocking stories makes its Sydney stage debut in a powerful new production at the King Street Theatre, Newtown tonight and will run on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights until the 24th May.

TRAINSPOTTING is the story of Mark Renton and his friends in the Edinburgh heroin scene of the eighties. The generation-defining novel by Irvine Welsh won global success as a film adaptation by Danny Boyle starring Ewan McGregor, but was first a highly successful and controversial West End stage production – winning the Sunday Times award for best new play.

Critical praise was universal and it went on to win an Academy Award nomination for best screenplay adaptation – despite controversy in the US as to whether or not it glorified drug use. Senator Bob Dole famously attacked the film’s ‘deparavity’, despite later admitting he had not seen it. The story remains an intense and raw portrayal of the dark side of life that is still very much just a backstreet away from us all.

Blackbox Theatre Company’s Luke Berman (Playmates, Proof, Glengarry Glen Ross) directs Damien Carr (A Glass Menagerie, Everynight Everynight), Taylor Beadle-Williams (Amnesia, Plans, The Crucible), Brendan Taylor (Antony & Cleopatra, Room, As You Like it) and Leigh Scully (Rescue: Special Ops, All Saints, East West 101, Managing Carmen, Brooklyn Boy), in this powerful and confronting play.

“Life’s boring and futile. We start off with high hopes. and then we bottle it. We realise we’re all going to die without finding out the big answers. Basically, we live a short, disappointing life and then we die. We fill our lives with shite, things like careers and relationships, to delude ourselves that it isn’t totally pointless. Smack is an honest drug, because it strips away the delusions. With smack, when you feel good, you feel immortal. When you feel bad – you see the misery of the world as it really is. Real life…”

TRAINSPOTTING
Based on the novel from Irvine Welsh,
adapted by Harry Gibson
Directed by Luke Berman
Produced by Black Box Theatre and Emu Productions
8 to 24 May 2014 Thur-Sat 7.30pm
King Street Theatre, Cnr King & Bray Streets Newtown
Tickets $32 / $27 conc. Bookings http://www.blackboxtheatre.org

Note: frequent coarse language, drug references, simulated sex. Not suitable for children.