Stars shine in serious comedy about addiction

@sohoplace

The Fifth Step appears to have joined Cyprus Avenue and The Ulster American as one of David Ireland’s finest plays, judging by the critics’ response to it. In this two-hander, Jack Lowden, best known for TV’s Slow Horses, is Luka, a new member of Alcoholics Anonymous, and Martin Freeman  (Sherlock, The Hobbit, The Responder), is James, longtime sober, who agrees to be his sponsor. The ‘fifth step’ involves confessionals, and that’s where the relationship starts to fall apart in stories of drink, sex and religion. All the critics raved about the two stars’ performances, and most were knocked out by the wit and drama of Ireland’s writing, but a few found the play subdued.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

5 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

BroadwayWorld’s Cindy Marcolina was full of praise: ‘Plays like The Fifth Step don’t come around often. Those whose layered philosophical exoskeleton sublime their own dramatic contradictions into quietly superb theatre. At its core, though less pure black comedy and more complex introspective drama coated in dark irony than what you’d expect from David Ireland, it has that delicious push-and-pull that only Ireland can write.’

Jonathan Marshall for LondonTheatre1 declared, ‘Ireland is in his own lane when it comes to playwrighting. The script is meticulously constructed with our expectations constantly subverted. In the wrong hands, the idea of spirituality could come over as trite and clichéd. Here it is depicted with an authentic rawness that we buy into and believe.’ The Mail’s Patrick Marmion also gave top marks, ‘mobilising four-letter, weapons-grade repartee, Ireland is never merely gratuitous and has a genius for embarrassing moral dilemmas.’

4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑

Theatre Weekly’s Greg Stewart noted, ‘Ireland’s script dances around a myriad of different themes, yet remains sharp, laced with biting humour and moments of aching vulnerability, deftly navigating themes of addiction, masculinity, and the elusive nature of faith and religion without ever slipping into sentimentality.’ As for the actors, ‘Freeman delivers a stand-out performance as James, a man whose calm exterior masks a storm of guilt and regret. His every pause and glance is loaded with subtext, making his eventual unravelling all the more harrowing. Lowden, meanwhile, is magnetic as Luka—volatile, charming, and deeply wounded.’

Holly O’Mahony of LondonTheatre said, ‘It’s a serious subject matter, but scorching one-liners, usually delivered by a deadpan Lowden but sometimes a quick-to-bite Freeman, ensure the play remains surprisingly funny at every turn. And the pair bring compelling opposing energies, with Freeman’s initially upbeat, delicately curious James a delicious contrast to Holden’s blunt, unfiltered Luka. Whether tender or troubling, chemistry always bubbles between them as they ping-pong through Ireland’s terse script.’ For Chris Wiegand in The Guardian, ‘The timing is impeccable throughout but…both give unsettling performances in a drama that specifically interrogates the role of a sponsor yet applies to multiple positions of authority and influence’.

Sarah Crompton of WhatsOnStage summed up her perceptive review by saying, ‘Freeman and Lowden spar like champions. The Fifth Step, carefully directed by Finn den Hertog, spins through many moods and multiple questions but it never loses its grip. It is a fascinating study of men with lives out of control, and the danger of the ways they seek to exert their power over others and themselves.’

Nick Curtis of The Standard proclaimed, ‘It’s seriously good to see these two actors back in a theatre in such challenging material, on an open stage that offers nowhere to hide’. He gave an added incentive: ‘There’s also an absolutely magnificent final, visual gag that’s almost worth the price of admission alone.’ Dave Fargnoli of The Stage disagreed about the ending, it seems: ‘Although the writing is baggy in places, and never really finds a satisfying conclusion, Ireland opts to leave the piece feeling deliberately messy and unfinished, just like his complex characters’ journeys towards sobriety.’ However he called it a ‘knotty, introspective two-hander…Directed with unsettling, slow-burning precision by Finn den Hertog’.

‘Lowden is staggeringly good as a young loner, Luka,’ reported The Times’ Clive Davis, ‘all jitters and tics and swear words, who is trying to pull himself out of an alcoholic spiral. Freeman impresses too as James, the adviser who is trying to help his protégé through the 12-step programme to sobriety.’ Helen Hawkins at The Arts Desk found ‘Lowden, as is usual with this exceptional actor, totally inhabits (his) wired character’.

3 stars ⭑⭑⭑

For the Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish, ‘despite bubbling with hard-won authenticity and again displaying Ireland’s flair for nifty, surprising dialogue, the short evening… winds up seeming curiously flat.’

Andrzej Lukowski of Time Out is not a fan of David Ireland’s provocative writing. He described this play as ‘uneven and didactic. Dialling down the outrage exposes the fact Ireland’s not exactly a man who writes deeply nuanced chracters. But it’s also funny, weird, well acted and provocative in a much more profound way than the nihilistic button pressing of old. And if Ireland has mellowed, its only so far – the intrinsically caustic nature of his writing has allowed him to write a play about the human yearning for spirituality that isn’t unbearably cringe.’

Alice Saville for The Independent was disappointed: ‘Director Finn den Hertog stages things simply, in the round. You’d expect a set-up like this to offer plenty of emotional punch, plenty of space for characters to unfurl, but the tension between these two performers doesn’t simmer as it should…this is a production that puts its hands firmly round your neck without ever delivering the expected throttling.’

Critics’ average rating 4.0 ★

The Fifth Step is at @sohoplace until 26 July 2025. Buy tickets from the theatre here.

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