I Once Was a Bonnie Young Trainspotter

Come here for a minute ’til I tell you about a bunch of deviants from Kilkenny, a talented bunch of misshapen misfits - The Devious Theatre Group. Last year, I was lucky enough to catch their brilliant production of Trainspotting in the Watergate Theatre.

Yesterday, they announced details of this year’s production, a Kilkenny take on Willy Russell’s Stags and Hens set in the gents and women’s toilets of the disco where both the bride, Linda, and the groom, Dave, have decided to hold their respective hen and stag nights, not knowing that their other half is at the same place. When Linda’s ex-boyfriend arrives and offers her an escape she is forced with a difficult decision. Den den dennn…

Being that Russell’s play is so ingrained with Liverpool’s 80′s culture (his other works Shirley Valentine and Blood Brothers, etc. chronicle a similar working class culture), it will be interesting to see if they will add a distinctly Kilkenny slant to the production.

Show your support and pencil in a journey to Kilkenny between the 21st and 25th July. For more information, keep an eye on Devious Theatre’s website and if you’re interested, check out my review of last year’s Trainspotting:

…But the three performances which stood out were Niall Sheehy’s Begbie, Ken McGuire’s Tommy and Ross Costigan’s Mark ‘Rent Boy‘ Renton. Niall’s performance was nothing short of terrifying. As the addicted-to-violence Begbie, he scared everyone he met. When he moved into the audience shouting (not singing) Road to Nowhere, it was one of the high points of the play. As I said above, Ken, in the role of Tommy, was the focus of my favourite scene of the play. It was depressing to see this formerly healthy sporty guy descend into a drug addled and then disease addled junkie. Very sad.

But the star of the show was Ross as Renton. He is in almost every scene and nails every moment. His dialogue is tough but he delivers it perfectly, especially the famous ‘Choose Life‘ speech which actually made my hairs stand on end. His incredible mix of brutal emotion with stark comedy epitomised Welsh’s novel…