Story: Luka (Jack Lowden) is an alcoholic, and his sponsor James (Martin Freeman), is helping him through the 12 steps. They start building up trust and a rapport, but is that enough for when they reach the fifth step, which is about confessing to things you’ve done wrong?
Video transcript:
I wanted to see The Fifth Step at Soho Place, having seen it up in Dundee for, well, three reasons.
One, I loved the play the first time around.
Two, it’s got a slightly different cast. Sean Gilder is replaced by Martin Freeman. Jack Lowden is still still in it.
And three, it’s being performed in the round. So it’s it’s a different performance space. The audience is all around. So I was very curious as to how it’s going to translate.
The play is still as funny and as witty as it was when I saw it up in Dundee. It’s not as dark as David Ireland’s other plays, but there is a sharpness to the to the humour.
It is different, in the round there’s hardly any set or just a few props, but no set, as there was up in Dundee.
The rapport between Jack Lowden and Martin Freeman is great. They really bounce off each other.
Slightly different tonally, but the subtlety that I really enjoyed in the changing relationship between the two of them still works really well.
The ending is different. It’s not better different. It’s not worse different. But I’d be really curious as to why it’s been changed. Just curious.
But, otherwise, it’s a cracking play, and I really enjoyed it.
Review: The Fifth Step, Soho Place Theatre
Written by David Ireland
Directed by Finn Den Hertog
Starring: Jack Lowden and Martin Freeman
Running time: 90 Minutes, no interval.
Booking until 26 July.
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