Olympia date for Irvine Welsh's Porno ahead of West End run

A hit new stage adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s novel Porno is heading for Liverpool as part of an autumn tour.

The production comes to the Olympia on October 5 prior to a West End run.

Porno was released in 2002 as a sequel to Walsh’s Trainspotting. But 15 years on from the events in that seminal book, what has happened to Renton, Sickboy, Begbie and Spud?

Mark Renton hasn’t been back to Leith since… well, since he robbed his pals and headed off to Amsterdam. Life has been… good? But there’s always been something missing.

How will Sickboy, Begbie and react to his return? Have they all settled down and become respectable members of society? Did they choose life? Of course they didn’t!

A condensed version of Porno sold out a month-long residency at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2022.

Now the full-length play, adapted for the stage by Davie Carswell and directed by Jonty Cameron, comes to Liverpool following its world premiere at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow next month. It will also play Crewe Lyceum on October 6 and Sale Waterside on October 7.

Above: Kevin Murphy as Spud. Photo by Kenny Ramsey.

Scott Kyle plays Renton, James McAnenery is Sickboy, Chris Gavin is Begbie and Kevin Murphy plays Spud. The cast also includes Jasmine Main as Lizzie and Jim Brown as Knox.

Carswell says: “The adaptation follows the novel as closely as possible. We’ve used plenty of Irvine’s writing verbatim to give it a really authentic script.

“The show deals with reaching a certain age and reflecting on what you’ve achieved, or not as the case may be. As you can expect from characters created by Irvine Welsh, the play will include sexual themes, drugs, and a lot of swearing. As if you’d expect anything else.

“I’m really excited to see the reaction of the northwest audiences prior to our West End run and hope they will enjoy the ride.”

Porno is at the Olympia in West Derby Road on October 5. Tickets HERE