We were led into the performance space, which is, appropriately, a mocked up train tunnel (apparently modelled on the legendary Glasgow nightspot The Tunnel). The stage is a long narrow rectangle and the audience sit around all four edges. At one of the narrow ends sits a couch and at the other sits a bed. The actors perform in the middle.
We were led into the "theatre" and were immediately assaulted by thumping bass, deafening music and the sight of dancers with glowsticks in the middle of a 90s rave - these were the actors who led us around the stage and sat us down. While waiting for the audience to get in and get seated I started to get worried - the bass was so deep and resonant that my chest was actually vibrating and the sound so loud my ears were starting to hurt. I almost started to panic and think, "If the whole show is like this I can't stay" Fortunately it wasn't but it was a rather disconcerting wait.
Anyway, the show started. As I mentioned earlier the show seems to be a greatest hits compilation between the movie and the book. Plenty of scenes I didn't recognise - presumably from the book - but much from the movie I did. The play does assume you're at least passably familiar with the general story, not to mention can understand thick Edinburgh accents (if you thought the accents in the movie were hard to follow you ain't heard nothing yet). The way they perform the various scenes is both interesting and novel - they use the constrained space very well and the performance moves endlessly up and down the narrow stage. All your favourite gross-out moments from the movie are present and correct - the toilet scene, the shitting-the-bed sequence - and the energy and passion is palpable. There is also a surprising amount of audience interaction with the performers clambering in and out of the audience, spraying them (lightly) with various substances (most notably during the shitting-the-bed bit) and generally being up close and personal - given there is nudity in here (mostly male) and I was sitting right behind the couch at one end I came the closest I've ever been thus far to a male member ... interesting from an anthropological point of view.
It's a very adult watch, and contains a couple of moments of sudden brutal violence against women which genuinely took me aback. One of these attacks took place on the aforementioned couch literally in front of me and to say it was very well done may somewhat underplay the horror that I was witnessing. Incredibly affecting. Don't go if you're easily offended, but then you should know that from the title ...
The cast were uniformly all excellent, especially the chap playing Begbie (Chris Dennis) who, if anything, made Robert Carlyle seem cuddly and misunderstood - no such possibility with this portrayal. They certainly don't leave anything off-stage. I've used the word "fearless" several times this Fringe to describe a performance but this really merits it - all put themselves out there.
I'm not sure whether I enjoyed it or not. I admired it, respected it, appreciated the staging and performances and I'm glad I went and experienced it. But it's quite gruelling and I was happy to walk out of that squalid, hopeless misery and back into my cosy, insulated middle-class existence.
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