Trainspotting returns home for 21st birthday
● Irvine Welsh to headline huge fundraiser to boost theatre campaign
Irvine Welsh is to stage a huge party celebrating the 21st anniversary of Trainspotting hitting cinemas to help efforts to reopen a neglected theatre after nearly 30 years.
A special birthday screening of Danny Boyle’s iconic movie is to be staged in Leith Theatre’s auditorium at the height of the Edinburgh Festival.
The 1,200-strong audience will be urged to get into the party spirit by joining in and even chanting some of the iconic dialogue from the film.
Leith-born Welsh, who will be taking part in a question and answer session, has also promised the world premiere of excerpts of a new novel.
Welsh has joined forces with arts collective Neu! Reekie! to stage the fundraiser, for which iconic post-punk band The Fire Engines is reforming, while celebrated US record
0 Rerunning: The original Trainspotting will feature at a special 21st anniversary screening at Leith Theatre with Irvine Welsh producer and DJ Arthur Baker will fly in for an appearance.
Welsh will be making his only public appearance of the festival in the first of what is expected to be a series of major fundraisers for the venue.
The five-hour event on 11 August is expected to be the biggest staged so far in Edinburgh by Neu! Reekie! founders Michael Pederson and Kevin Williamson.
Williamson published Welsh’s work for the first time in the early 1990s in his ground-breaking literary magazine Rebel Inc.
Welsh said: “I kind of don’t really have much to add about Trainspotting, other than I’m still interested in the characters and enjoy writing about them. As long as that vibe is happening, I’ll carry on.”
Originally built as a gift to Leith after its controversial amalgamation with Edinburgh in 1920, Leith Theatre was almost destroyed in a bomb blast during the Second World War and nearly sold off in 2004 after falling into disrepair before its closure in 1988.
Welsh was unveiled in January as the patron of the Leith Theatre Trust, which has been given a lease with the city council while it raises funds for the rebirth of the building.
Welsh said: “Leith Theatre is about to come of age again. The loss of city centre venues and the gentrification of Leith, making it no longer a no-go area for tourists, ensure its development as a city-wide resource essential. And it is, and will remain, a hub for the local community.”
Williamson said: “We went to Irvine with the idea of doing a Neu! Reekie! event with him for the theatre and he gave us a date. We thought we would try and do something special.
“It’s really a ‘Trainspotting comes back to Leith night’. We’re not going to put any seats in. We just want people to come along and have a party while the film is on to celebrate the anniversary.”