"Trainspotting" is everything that you don’t want to see with your parents. It’s crude, it's racy, and it’s completely unfiltered. This is the type of play that would have a hard time even getting an R rating with its bountiful sex, violence, and drugs, offences so abundant that the audience becomes desensitized to them. But in spite of all this, the actors’ ability and willingness to go to such extremes for their art is incredible. This play leaves nothing to the imagination, allowing audiences to fully appreciate the baseness of addiction. 

Director and producer Roger Mathey first brought "Trainspotting" to the stage in 2002, and he is now bringing his most popular play back for a reprise. The play follows the life of Mark Renton (Justin Zachary) and his heroin-addicted friends in the junkie underworld of Edinburgh, Scotland in the 1980s. Based on Irvine Welsh’s generation-defining novel, "Trainspotting" allows viewers to get an intimate look at the vicious cycle of addiction, recovery, and relapse. But beyond the drugs, "Trainspotting" also gives the audience a harsh look at the urban poverty and general disillusionment of the time. As Mark says in one of the numeous monologues, “smack's an honest drug...it's the only really honest drug… ye see the misery ay the world as it is.”

Fans of Danny Boyle’s 1996 film adaptation will be shocked at how tame the movie is in comparison to the play, which is a much more literal rendition of the original novel. The lewd sex scenes, gross toilet humor, and cringe-inducing violence in the play become overkill. It seems as if the director is trying to see just how far he can go without losing his audience, but it becomes distracting and ends up taking away from the extreme talent of the actors themselves.

Zachary and his castmates are phenomenal. Zachary's accent was impeccable, and his interaction with the other cast members, especially Tommy (David Agranov) appeared genuine and deeply emotional. He even looked the role, with numerous tattoos and the gaunt body of an addict. The believability of the cast members’ thick Scottish accents, while difficult to understand at times, was truly incredible. Although the extremity of the play itself was distracting at times, Jason Rupert's simple black set design allowed the focus to remain entirely on the actors.

The numerous sololqies by Mark and his dead-beat friends allow the audience to gain a wonderful insight into the actual mentality of an addict. While this could easily be a cop-out to enable the actors to talk about their emotions rather than showing them directly, it works effectively in this play to allow the audience to gain a deeper understanding of something that they likely know little about. 

This visceral look at the self-inflicted pain and misery of addiction defies any glamorized notions of “heroin-chic.” While painful to watch, this moving adaptation of the cult classic novel is enough to make anyone stay away from drugs for the rest of their lives—so much so that this play could become the foundation of an adult D.A.R.E. program. Nothing is held back; not the nudity, not the filth, and certainly not the hardships. The boldness with which the actors and director approached the story is commendable, though perhaps a bit too brash.

Reach Staff Reporter Sara Newman here; follow her on Twitter here.

"Trainspotting" plays at the Elephant Theatre (6322 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA) through April 13. Tickets are $15-$20. More information can be found here.