Ian Cheeseman shares his experience watching the Summerseat Players bring Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting to life in an intense, immersive show that’s equal parts shocking, funny, and deeply moving, a reminder of why local theatre matters.
Having grown up in Radcliffe, near Bury and having a father who worked on the railways, I was always familiar with the East Lancashire heritage railway. The trains go through the picturesque town of Ramsbottom, which has a particularly lovely station. I once saw one of Fred Dibnah’s traction engines parked in the station car park and I’ve bought delicious cakes from the shops on the main street.
I hadn’t known that the town also has a thriving and very imaginative theatre, until a few days ago. Very fittingly, given my family history, the Summerseat Players, who are the resident company at the Theatre Royal Ramsbottom, were performing Trainspotting, though of course the play, based on the novel written by Irvine Welsh, which was turned into a film starring Ewan McGregor in 1996, isn’t about taking train numbers while camped at the end of the platform. The cinematic version was directed by Radcliffe born Danny Boyle.
The 90s film followed a group of heroin addicts in an economically depressed area of Edinburgh. I’ve never watched it myself but knew of it by reputation. I was mentally prepared for an intense evening in the theatre, with this 2025 version taking place in Manchester. It was staged in the studio space at the Theatre Royal, an intimate location with the front row aware that the show would be fully immersive and the possibility that actors might interact with them.
From the moment one of the characters entered the bar area we were underway. One of the actors yelled at the gathering audience to take their places in the auditorium; even that was intense, foreshadowed what was to come. The show was very loud as we entered the theatre, dressed as a nightclub with thumping music (I wore the ear plugs that were offered, such was the volume). It felt authentic, gritty and angry. I’d spoken to the director, Jon Walker, before the show and I think he achieved everything he promised, with the very talented cast he had at his disposal.
Stephen Davies, as Mark Renton, who’s also the artistic director of Summerseat Players (and works at a school in his real life), led from the front. It’s a dark tale of wasted youth, which starts in Thatcher’s Britain. There were surprising moments of humour, particularly during the interactions with the audience, but there were also shockingly real moments that made you think. I was watching the face of one woman on the front row go from laughing at some sexual innuendo to gasping with a mixture of anxiety and horror when one of the characters started convulsing right in front of her.
It was a performance and a story that was designed that way. It wasn’t for the faint hearted or the easily offended but it achieved it’s goal superbly. The standard of acting was amazing. I felt like I’d lived through a slice of that seedy, uncomfortable world by the time I made my way home. It made me think and be grateful for my life, which couldn’t be more different from what I was witnessing.
It made me wonder how rehearsing and performing such an intense play would affect the actors. There wasn’t a performer who wasn’t totally invested in their character. If this is the standard of Summerseat Players I can highly recommend a trip to Ramsbottom for one of their productions and while there are other gritty plays coming up there, they’ll also have Calendar Girls in June next year, so all their shows don’t come with a content warning of very strong language, violet and sexual language and heavy drug and needle use!
That wasn’t just a night out I experienced, it was a perfect example of how important theatre is to a healthy society. Get out there and support your local theatre and of course listen to my weekly radio show Break-a-Leg which will feature interviews with Stephen Davies and Jon Walker in future editions!