It seems like the adventures of Renton, Sick Boy, Spud, and Begbie are set to get the US treatment as Trainspotting’s author, Irvine Welsh, has been discussing how he has written a new play that moves this rag tag group of friends from Scotland to America .
Of course, this will no doubt be meet with tremendous hostility by British fans of the seminal 1996 movie, but it seems like Welsh, who moved to the United States two years ago, has become inspired by his surroundings and can’t quite shake the loveable working class heroin addicts from his mind. It’s highly unlikely that Danny Boyle will be joining him on the latest adventure, what with having wowed the world with his Olympics opening ceremony.
First though. however, Welsh has to promote his latest novel, Skagboys , a prequel to Trainspotting that looks at how Renton and his buddies launched into Edinburgh’s heroin scene in the early 1980s and how they battled social demons. It is the third book to feature these characters, coming after the aforementioned masterpiece and its sequel, Porno .
Trainspotting USA will be set in Kansas City, Missouri, and the play will have its world premiere in Chicago at the Theatre Wit next month with the award-winning director Tom Mullen set to help bring it to stage. It will run from 13 October to 2 December.
Describing the adaptation Welsh revealed:
“They go down to Mexico and all that, have a drug deal down there with prescription drugs. To me it feels very American.”
It’ll have to go a long way to outdo Trainspotting.
