30 years on from the film that changed everything, Trainspotting: The Musical has its world premiere. Written by Irvine Welsh with music and lyrics by Stephen McGuinness and Irvine Welsh, directed and developed by Caroline Jay Ranger.
Renton, Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud, Tommy, and Kelly, the industrial drug-crazed working class heroes, are back.
In 1996, ‘CHOOSE LIFE’ sounded like a challenge. 30 years on, the landscape has shifted, but the hunger hasn’t. Addiction hasn’t disappeared – it’s shifted. It’s quieter now, more embedded. Less needle, more screen. Less escape, more repetition. The same restless search for something to fill the space.
The musical highlights the world we see changing around us, the obscene concentration of wealth, economic and political power in the hands of so few people. It addresses the modern culture of powerlessness. Art the singing-and-dancing Trojan horse that delivers direction and relevance.
This isn’t nostalgia, it’s closer than that. The past isn’t revisited – it lingers. The musical doesn’t tidy it. It sits with it. Listens to it. And lets it sing. New songs, classic songs, a musical like never before. Not for the easily confronted. It’s funny, loud, dynamic, and brings a dark dangerous energy never experienced before on the West End stage.
There are no clean answers here. Only incredible music and flashes of clarity, humour, and the uneasy sense of recognition.
CHOOSE LIFE.
“I believe the musical has a bigger, loudly beating human heart than either the book or the film. People need to think about the world we’re living in, and we offer that inspection, but they also really need to sing their hearts out and laugh their heads off – it’s what being human is all about.” Irvine Welsh
Running Time: TBC
Age Guidance: 15+
Tickets
Tickets are on Row J in the stalls
Prices
CSSC Member: £29.25
Non-member: £45.00 + £6 non-member event fee
Child (Under 18, Age guidance 15+): £45.00
Buying a non member ticket?
An event fee is applied to each non-member ticket. Why not make use of the linked membership scheme and earn yourself £10 by joining them up to CSSC, they will save the non-member event fee, and purchase the ticket at the discounted members rate. Invite your non-member guests to join CSSC here.
Please note that non-member event fee is non-refundable
Notes and restrictions
One CSSC Member ticket per unique CSSC membership
Tickets will be emailed to the purchaser in closer to the event to the email address provided during booking.
Available to purchase until 1 November 2026 or until sold out.
For any queries, please contact the organiser via the contact information below.