‘Trainspotting’ musical to hit the West End this summer

A Trainspotting musical is set to debut this summer, transporting Irvine Welsh’s gritty cult novel to the West End stage.

The 1993 novel, which was adapted into Danny Boyle’s hugely influential 1996 film, will debut at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in July. It will feature original songs by Welsh, while Caroline Jay Ranger is set to develop and direct.

Upcoming Scottish actor Robbie Scott will play the novel’s lead character Mark Renton, a heroin addict battling life in 1980s Edinburgh.

“This musical has a bigger, loudly beating human heart than either the book or the film,” said Welsh. “The various stage adaptations of ‘Trainspotting’ have become acclaimed and moving theatrical experiences and the soundtrack to the movie is obviously iconic. So it made sense to put the music and words together to create an explosive, provocative and entertaining show. People need to think about the world we’re living in, and we offer that inspection, but they also really need to sing their hearts out and laugh their heads off — it’s what being human is all about — and they’ll be well served with this too.”

Though the show’s core story of heroin addiction will remain, Welsh told the Telegraph that more modern addictions – including social media – are set to feature in the show.

“The problems of addiction are now pharmaceutical drugs or food, the air we breathe, [and] above all, the internet and mobile phones – these things we’re stuck to all the time, where we go through our dopamine hits,” he said.

“So we’re moving into alluding to all that kind of stuff as well, so it’s become a much bigger piece in a lot of ways.”

According to a press release, it promises to be “a genre defining new musical that speaks to our contemporary malaise of defiance in the face of an uncertain future”. Tickets are now on sale here.