Sweat, Shouting, and the Worst Toilet in Scotland: An Interview with Greg Esplin on Trainspotting Live

Few stories have burned themselves into Scotland’s artistic memory quite like Trainspotting. First unleashed in 1993 as Irvine Welsh’s gritty, darkly funny debut novel, it hurled readers into the chaotic lives of a group of young heroin users in Edinburgh. Then came Danny Boyle’s 1996 film adaptation — a kinetic, anarchic and unapologetic ride that became a global cult phenomenon, soundtracked by Underworld and Iggy Pop, forever etching Renton, Sick Boy, Tommy and Begbie into pop culture history.

Now, Trainspotting Live takes that same raw energy and hurls it off the screen, straight into your lap — quite literally. Immersive, unflinching, and sometimes uncomfortably close, it invites the audience to live, breathe and flinch their way through the highs and the horrors of addiction in Edinburgh in the nineties.

I sat down with co-director and performer Greg Esplin to talk about the show’s unlikely evolution. From its origins as a sprawling, three-hour epic with a huge cast, it’s been distilled into a tight, adrenaline-fuelled 75 minutes powered by just five performers. In our conversation, Greg explains how the creative team refined the chaos to make it razor-sharp and relevant. On the business side, he revealed the behind-the-scenes hustle — from budgeting and marketing to building an audience year after year — proving that keeping a hit show alive at the Fringe takes as much strategy as it does artistry.

TRANSCRIPT

(0:00 - 5:24)

Hello, I'm Ruth from the Arts Business and we're here with Greg to talk about his amazing show Trainspotting. So firstly Greg, tell us as briefly as possible what your role is and what your show is about. My role is I'm co-producer, co-director and I also play Tommy.

We're doing Trainspotting live which is a semi-immersive version of Irving Welsh's novel and Danny Boyle's film Trainspotting. How's the response been so far? You've been doing it for years now right? Yeah it's overwhelming. I think I was telling someone last night because I've been in it since the beginning.

I don't think I quite understand you know how well it's received because to me it's this little thing but it's been amazing so far. I'm assuming it's gone up in terms of production values as well. Yeah I mean when we started it was you know it was a three hour 40 minute long promenade piece for 14 people.

Now it's a 75 minute cast of five, really slick and the production value's definitely gone up. Amazing. So are you from Edinburgh? No I'm from Falkirk which is in between Glasgow and Edinburgh but I studied in Edinburgh.

Nice, where did you study? I studied at Queen Margaret University. Me too! What year were you? I graduated in 2014. Oh nice, you'd have been on the new courses.

So I went to Telford College and then went to Queen Margaret yeah. Nice. In 2011 I did the theatre production course.

Did you? That's still a thing. Not anymore. So why did you decide to take it to Edinburgh? I think because we were you know I studied in Edinburgh, we were sort of immersed within the fringe as students anyway so it kind of made sense that we would start doing shows there.

So we did a couple of plays before that were quite well received which allowed us to then take a punt on Trainspotting and why not do it in Edinburgh? It was risky because it could have been an absolute car crash of a show and when people feel like they have ownership of it, which they do in Edinburgh, it was a risk but I think it paid off. Amazing, how did you get the rights for it all? That's quite a funny story. We put it on December 2013 out of the Blue Drill Hall and we did not have the rights and we thought we were going to do it for a week and then Irvin came to the show, Irvin Welsh, and thankfully really enjoyed it and the bar athlete was sort of like that was brilliant, if there's anything I can do to help and I was like could we have the rights? And that could have been the end of the show but it went really well thankfully and we have the rights.

Amazing. I assume you act for a living, what else do you do on the side? Yeah I act for a living and on the side I am also a production manager, freelance production manager in fashion, so I do freelance fashion gigs. Nice, how do you fund your show? So initially we were self-funded through bar work, student loans but you know this is when the fringe was a bit big, you could take a bit more of a punt and save a bit of money but then we about maybe 2016, James Seabright who runs Seabright Productions, we formed the co-production and so now we use the capital to start the show from that but initially it was bar money and student loans.

I assume you're raking it in now? You would assume but the fringe is not cheap, the good thing is we're able to pay all the actors, give actors accommodation and we can run a really well looked after show that has the security, that has the paramedics, that has a full-time company manager. So yeah we're really lucky that we, that's why I always struggle to give people advice to bring shows to the fringe because I realise how lucky we are that we have a successful show that people keep coming back to. So I'm all, I'm sometimes quite, I'm conscious about telling people just do it because it's hard.

It is really hard. Where did you start, what venue did you start performing in? Out of the Blue, Drell Hall and Dalmeny Street in Leith. Oh damn, damn.

It's not even a venue anymore. I think they might be a fringe, I'm not quite sure but when it was there it was in December and it was cold, like freezing because it's like got the glass roof and you can see your breath on stage and it was three and a half hours long like I said, mad. And then how is your relationship with the presidents developed? Presidents? Pleasants? None of them.

They're amazing, yeah I mean the fact they have us back a year I think it's, I mean it's good to the sales right? Yeah. How would it be if it didn't sell, we don't know. But it's amazing they look after us.

What's lovely is we have, every year we have the same security guards pretty much come back, the same cleaning staff, the same front of house. We've had a security guard this year who'd left last year and has come back just to walk on our show. So you form this little family I guess, you know it's really nice having people who care about the show and care about the people in it.

And do you have the same cast come back as well? Yeah I mean the current cast at the moment, three of us have been together since 2018, Craig who plays Sick Boy's been in the show, he's been there for three years and then Alice Glass has just joined us this year as the lead female in the show and we've got two new understudies as well. Great. What's your hardest part to prepare for the Fringe every year? The hardest part, I mean I guess it's just like finding accommodation is difficult.

It's just mental, it is just sadly like sort of becoming the antithesis. We looked into staying in a hotel in the Ibis budget on Hunter Square. Yeah it's not a budget is it? 400 quid a night, it's absolutely insane.

It's just a joke, it's not what it was for. So yeah that's always a challenge. Again we're so lucky that we have a returning cast which is such a relief because the year that when we all sort of step down it's going to be a hell of a rehearsal period.

(5:24 - 9:03)

Yeah that is a lot of a show. What's your daily schedule like at the Fringe? Daily schedule, this year is a lot more chilled for me. I've decided when I come up from London I'm not staying in the cast flat, I'm staying home in Falkirk.

I just can't do the whole going on. Well things I can do and I would, so I'm taking myself away from it. So my schedules, I get up, have a bath, I do some stretches, really boring, come here, have a coffee.

I went to a show today and then yeah come in. We come in about, we're very lucky that we have our own venue. We don't share a venue.

It's amazing, it's so unusual. Yeah you know it's, we're very lucky so we can come and do a warm-up and our call time is like two hours before the show starts so just a chill. How does your company manage all of the marketing side of things at the social media? So Seabright Productions who we co-produce has a full-time, her name's Kate who does all of our marketing for us now which is really good and yeah it's mostly, I mean social media postings are huge now.

I mean I don't have Facebook myself but even Facebook is massive for selling shows now. I mean I still get excited when I see a poster but apparently they don't sell it. Instagram and Facebook is more important but I just love, I love a poster.

Yeah I know what you mean. You used to be able to put them anywhere and now you can't anymore. Have you got any tips for managing burnout or exhaustion for people during the Fringe? Yeah I mean it's going to be such boring stuff isn't it but you've really got to look after yourself.

I mean it's a long old run and then I've just had to say no to things and not drink at night or if you don't have a beer. You know like just plan the days where you're going to do something fun and big and it's okay just to like not, if you have a day off not come to the Fringe and relax and like and really just have a bit of you time, see your family whatever. But I'm saying that with like hindsight because I've burnt myself out so many times to the point where you know we used to do that show you've just seen it three times a night back in the day.

Yeah that's a lot. And there's nothing worse walking up to your first show being like I shouldn't have had those 12 pints last night. Cast your mind back to the first time you did the Fringe.

Is there anything you wish you'd known before you did it? I think I look back with those tinted glasses because it was, I felt like so much was achievable back then and you could just stick a show on for a couple grand and save it up for your mates and I kind of like the ignorance, you know the ignorance of us not having the rights. I wouldn't change anything. I guess I wish I knew the Fringe was going to become what it is now and I would have probably tried to put more shows on then when it was easier I guess.

Nice. What advice would you give to first timers thinking about coming up next year? I guess that's a question I always have to be careful about because I don't want to tell people like go for it and chuck all your money into it because it's hard. Stay outside of the city.

Stay outside of the city. I think you don't need as many props and costumes as you think you do like sack that stuff off. Yeah I mean I just have a look at the new venues you know there's some really good venues like the wee red bar we performed The Hard Man there years ago at Edinburgh Arts College and there's some really good venues that want to work with you and they want to get new people in and they might give you a bit of a better deal.

You have a look at Leith as well like you know there's some great art down there and it's tough. I'm really conscious of telling people to do it because I know that it's a real risk now and I felt like if you'd asked me this question 12 years ago I'd have been like do it because you will still sell tickets you're not risking as much as you would now. Absolutely.

Sum up your Fringe experience in a sentence. Oh this year. I've given you too much if I say just all of the Fringe in general.

(9:03 - 9:23)

I would just say lots of pipes and chicken briquette. Amazing and finally can you tell audiences where we can find you? Great you can find us six days a week two shows a night at the EICC on Morrison Street 6.30 and 8.45 every day apart from Wednesdays basically and we're doing Transport in Life. Amazing.

Thank you so much.