A Fierce, Life-Affirming Dance With Death

Would it be bad taste to call the stage adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s “Trainspotting”--first a novel, then a movie about dropout heroin junkies in Edinburgh, Scotland--a shot in the arm? Sure--but no more so than anything else about the fierce, bold, harrowing production currently on stage at Hollywood’s Theatre/Theater. If you prefer your theater with expletives deleted and fully clothed, this is no place to be.

For those who recall graphic scenes from the equally jolting 1996 movie, the first thing that pops to mind before seeing the stage version is: They can’t really do that on stage, can they?

Yes, they can. Yeah, they do. The opening scene will make you squirm in your chair, and you’ll probably keep squirming until the end.

If anything, the stage version, a L.A. premiere directed by Roger Mathey for seat of your pants Productions, is even more in-your-face because, in this small theater on the fourth floor of a commercial building on Hollywood Boulevard, it really is in your face. The dirt, stench and body fluids that always seem to end up in inappropriate locations are so close that there’s a feeling the stuff is going to get all over you. It’s a spare, black comedy played out against a spare, black set, with one door that opens to different locations, most often to a toilet.

In the film, the magic of special effects often takes the viewer on a high along with the character who has just put a needle in his arm. The stage version is less hallucinogenic, more real--less effective at conjuring up the lure of addiction but more deft in showing the damage done.

Your guide through this world is Mark Renton, played by Ewan McGregor in the movie and here by the engaging Justin Zachary, who narrates the tale with a humorous but heartbreaking combination of amorality and innocence. Zachary, as well as the rest of this brave cast, provides a fragile humanity that renders this dance with death ultimately life-affirming.

The Scottish dialect, thick as oatmeal, is just as indecipherable here as in the movie, but the program contains a “Trainspotting Glossary” of idiomatic terms. After reading it, you’ll be prepared to offend everyone in Scotland.

“Trainspotting,” Theatre/Theater, 6425 Hollywood Blvd. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 6 p.m. Through March 30. $15 (Sunday matinees, pay what you can). Reservations, (661) 837-4819.