Trainspotting USA
By Irvine Welsh, adapted for the stage by Henry Gibson
Adapted onto the American landscape by Tom Mullen
Directed by Tom Mullen
Disgusting glimpse into the horrors of heroin isn’t worth the journey
I must say that it confounds me that so much theatrical resources are put into such terrible subject matter. What is the stage worthiness of depicting so graphically a group of young folks addicted to heroin? Tom Mullen has moved Irvine Welsh’s Transpotting to Kansas city from Edinburgh, Scotland. That didn’t help much since the group of hopeless addicts are so lacking in empathy that their adventures become a tedious series of vignettes. Narrated by Mark (Shane Kenyon), we meet the group of addicts as they shoot-up, go through episodes of withdrawal, and physically and emotionally justify their habit.
The production is a foul-mouthed, raw production filled with purposeless scenes demonstrating many of the heroin use including vomiting, crapping in one’s pants among other disgusting events. Even the sex scenes are raw and amazingly un-sexy. There is tasteless nudity including one addict shooting up by putting a needle into his penis. The storyline is a series of disjointed vignettes filled with vivid shooting-up scenes as well as several scream-and-shout violent scenes amplified with quite loud rock . Among the performances, each guy in the cast had there moments but Jenny Lamb shined as the sexy addict with the baby. Shane Kenyon narrated the drama and bravely did several disgusting scenes including one that had him defecating then putting his hands in a filled toilet to find his pills.
The horrors of heroin addiction is vividly presented here but I question the lack of dramatic development since the 90 minutes was mostly crude sex, violence, and raw portraits of heroin addiction. The story was thin as it went more for shock value than engaging stories or in depth characterizations. Crudeness doesn’t substitute for story.
Not Recommended
Tom Williams
Talk Theatre in Chicago
Date Reviewed: October 28, 2012
For more info checkout the Trainspotting USA page at theatreinchicago.com
At Theatwe Wit, 1225 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago, IL, www.theaterwit.org, tickets $32.50, Thursdays & Fridays at 8 pm, Saturdays at 7 & 9:30 pm, Sundays at 5pm, running time is 90 minutes without intermission, through December 2, 2012