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nal as possible. And you’ve got the freedom to do that
because theatre is the exception to the rule. It hasn’t
suffered much censorship since the 1950s. The theatre
is very much a middle class medium and therefore it’s
considered quite all right to have arseshagging and all
that sort of thing going on because it won’t be a bad
influence on the proles because they won’t see it. It’s
the telly you’ve got to control because it’ll get through
to the working class and probably pervert the children.
So ordinary people have to put up with tons of censorship
all the time on the telly, whereas when they go to
the theatre they get to hear it like it really is.”
This freedom of portrayal has been tested to further
extremes with Gibson’s adaptation of Welsh’s second
novel, Marabou Stork Nightmares. Nightmares makes
Trainspotting look like Ivor The Engine, with the
story centring around rapist and football hooligan, Roy
Strang. Gibson’s commitment to faithfully representing
the text doesn’t shy away from the novel’s most appalling
moments. “If you have to cry or turn away from
particular scenes, then you do. But the scenes stay in.
BUY Irvine Welsh books online from and
It’s necessary that they are there. It’s great to be doing
this kind of stuff because it’s in people’s bloodstreams,
it’s not classic, it’s not old, it’s not trying to teach you
something, it’s not trying to tell you to live better lives,
it’s just there like the smell of your own sweat. I really
wish theatre could keep on being like that and not keep
slipping back into being a snobby, musty medium.”
Despite Nightmares’ success, the chances of it following
Trainspotting around the country are distinctly
limited. “It’s filthy expensive because it’s an epic panto
from hell. I might do a small version of it in which a
small group of naked people savage each other in a
cage. I’m completely serious about that. I’m very into
sensationalism, I’m a shocking sensationalist.”
Even after being immersed within Irvine Welsh’s
violent realities for the last three years, Gibson’s next
major project sounds like a major challenge: “I’m going
to do something rather delightful next. I have the
rights to do a stage version of A.A, Milne’s When We
Were Very Young. It’ll be set in 1924 which will be very
lovely and no one will say ‘cunt’ at all.” �
540
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