Soon after publication, the book was adapted for the stage by Harry Gibson. The stage version inspired the subsequent film, and regularly toured the UK in the mid-1990s. This adaptation starred Ewen Bremner and later Tam Dean Burn as Renton.
The US stage premier occurred in San Francisco, California in 1996. It was produced and shown in the upstairs room (a tiny 50-seat theatre) at the Edinburgh Castle Pub, the small but legendary literary and arts bar.[5] The play was produced and directed by Alan Black, the head of the Scottish Cultural and Arts Foundation, which was an organization that held Scottish-connected events in San Francisco in the 90s.[6] The play was a huge success. It was twice extended and hundreds of hopeful viewers had to be turned away because of a lack of space in the tiny theater above the pub. [7]
The Los Angeles production of Trainspotting won the 2002 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Direction,[8] and the 2002 LA Weekly Theater Award for Direction,[9] for director Roger Mathey.
In 2013 In Your Face Theatre and Seabright Productions staged a new immersive production of Gibson's adaptation rebranded as Trainspotting Live. Directed by Adam Spreadbury-Maher and Greg Esplin, this production has gone on to sell out at three Edinburgh Festival Fringes and played to critical acclaim in London, on several UK tours and in New York City.
