Trainspotting: A Look Back at the Cultural Phenomenon
I’ve always been squeamish about needles. Graphic drug-taking by any method doesn’t sit well with me either. I first encountered Harry Gibson‘s stage adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting in the 1990s, shortly after moving to London from America. My main memories involve nausea and confusion – my grasp of the Scottish accents was tenuous back then. Fast forward about twenty years, and producer James Seabright commissioned a programme article for Adam Spreadbury-Maher‘s immersive staging of Trainspotting Live. This iteration had already enjoyed success at the King’s Head Theatre, the Edinburgh Fringe, and on tour before its first season at The Vaults, timed perfectly with the 20th anniversary of Danny Boyle‘s film and the release of T2.
Researching that article meant finally watching Boyle’s seminal 1996 film. While my understanding of Scottish accents had improved, the nausea returned intensely (the baby scene, even more than the infamous toilet scene, was gut-wrenching). Despite appreciating the history and cultural impact of Irvine Welsh’s story about Edinburgh heroin addicts, I couldn’t bring myself to dive into the immersive theatre experience back then, missing Trainspotting Live‘s 2016/17 run at The Vaults. However, with its return for an extended season before a New York transfer, I’m determined not to be so hesitant this time – perhaps just avoiding a large meal beforehand.
The Trainspotting Phenomenon
“Trainspotting was not only my first novel, it was my first real attempt at writing, so I’m very proud of it,” Irvine Welsh once stated, perhaps with a touch of false modesty. Pride seems entirely justified for a novel that ignited a cultural phenomenon, one continually rediscovered over two decades later, far exceeding initial expectations.
Welsh began writing Trainspotting while working as an Edinburgh civil servant, drawing inspiration from diaries and his experiences with drugs during unemployment in the city a decade earlier. Sections initially appeared as short stories in publications like Rebel Inc and New Writing Scotland. Following a recommendation, Welsh pitched these to Robin Robertson at Secker & Warburg. Despite believing it wouldn’t sell well, Robertson published the novel in 1993 with an initial print run of just 3,000 copies.
While some were shocked by the graphic, non-judgmental portrayal of heroin addiction – it was long-listed for the 1993 Booker Prize but allegedly dropped from the shortlist due to objections from two judges – literary critics largely praised Trainspotting. Rebel Inc hyperbolically called it “The best book ever written by man or woman… Deserves to sell more copies than The Bible.” The Sunday Times offered a more measured but equally glowing review: “The voice of punk, grown up, grown wiser and grown eloquent… Welsh writes with a skill, wit and compassion that amounts to genius. He is the best thing that has happened to British writing for decades.”
From Page to Stage and Screen
Within months of the book’s publication, Harry Gibson‘s stage adaptation of Trainspotting emerged (Gibson would later adapt four more Welsh novels). It debuted as a studio piece at Glasgow Citizens Theatre in 1994, received a full production at the Traverse Theatre during the 1995 Edinburgh Fringe, and subsequently transferred to London’s Bush Theatre and the West End.
Ewan McGregor and Jonny Lee Miller as Renton and Sick Boy on a sofa in the 1996 Trainspotting film
It was seeing this play that inspired Danny Boyle to create the 1996 film, propelling Trainspotting into another stratosphere of cultural recognition. Boyle enlisted John Hodge, his collaborator on the 1994 Brit flick Shallow Grave, to adapt the novel. Hodge streamlined the episodic, multi-narrator structure of the book and play to suit the linear narrative demands of cinema, notably omitting the explanation behind the metaphorical title.
Director Danny Boyle working on the set of the iconic 1996 movie Trainspotting
Shallow Grave star Ewan McGregor was cast as the central character, Mark Renton. Ewen Bremner, who originated Renton on stage, transitioned to playing the hapless fellow addict Spud. The iconic cast also included Jonny Lee Miller as the Sean Connery-fixated Sick Boy, Robert Carlyle as the terrifyingly violent Begbie, newcomer Kelly McDonald as Renton’s underage girlfriend Diane, and Irvine Welsh himself in a cameo as Mikey Forrester, the drug dealer whose suppositories lead Renton to “The Worst Toilet in Scotland”.
Ewan McGregor running as Mark Renton in a famous scene from the 1996 Trainspotting film adaptation
Shot on a modest budget of $1.5 million, Boyle’s film grossed over $72 million worldwide. Like the novel, it garnered both critical acclaim and significant controversy. During the 1996 US presidential campaign, Republican candidate Bob Dole famously condemned the film for its perceived “moral depravity” and alleged glorification of drug use.
The Enduring Legacy of Trainspotting
Twenty years after the original film’s release, the principal cast reunited for the long-awaited sequel. T2 Trainspotting, released in January 2017, depicted Renton, Spud, Sick Boy, and Begbie back in Edinburgh, attempting to break into the porn industry. It seemed the creators, despite initial reluctance to tamper with the original’s legacy, couldn’t resist revisiting these characters.
This resistance also proved futile for Welsh. T2 was loosely based on his 2002 sequel novel, Porno. He further expanded the universe with the 2012 prequel Skag Boys, detailing the characters’ descent into addiction, and has featured them in other novels over the years.
Promotional flyer for Trainspotting Live showing its return run at The Vaults theatre
Regardless of the medium, the characters’ exploits continue to fuel the Trainspotting phenomenon. The original novel has sold over a million copies in the UK alone and been translated into 30 languages. The play earned The Sunday Times Award for Best New Play, was hailed as a Top Scottish Theatre Event by The Scotsman, and sees continued productions globally, including a 2012 American adaptation set in Kansas City. The 1996 movie was the highest-grossing British film of its year and ranks tenth on the British Film Institute’s list of Top 100 British Films. It received an Oscar nomination, three BAFTA nominations, and numerous Best Actor awards for Ewan McGregor, launching his international career.
Through sequels, reprints, DVDs, streaming availability, soundtracks, and innovative stage reinterpretations like the return of In Your Face Theatre’s immersive production, Trainspotting remains vividly alive, continually engaging new generations.
