***** (5 stars)
“It’s Simply Stunning”
Having just got back from Finland the night before, I was tired and the temptation not to go out into a dark and wet night was strong. I am SO glad I made it to the FilmHouse for this world premiere of David Ireland’s The Fifth Step.
It’s simply stunning.
The play’s title references one of the Alcoholics Anonymous Twelve Steps, which their website says provide a structured and gradual process of recovery from addiction to alcohol. The fourth step is to make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves: the fifth is to admit to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. The website goes on to say that ‘God’ in the 12 Steps absolutely does not have to be a religious entity. The purpose is to think of a higher power, such as nature, or simply what happens when people come together to help each other.
James has been sober for many years. He’s a quiet, respectable Englishman who is very self-contained but at the same time seems happy to reach out to help Luka, who has not long arrived at AA. Luka’s in a bad way – twitching and jiggling around, words streaming out of him in tortured explosions. He’s a Scot, a ginge with a huge chip on his shoulder and a maelstrom of emotions whirling inside him: he’s like a pressure cooker on the verge of exploding.
Luka asks James to be his sponsor: James agrees, and the two men meet regularly. We see Luka beginning slowly to creep out of his tormented life and to establish habits that help him resist the constant temptations of alcohol and the obsessive behaviours in which he hides. We also discover more about the incredibly reserved James – all is not well in his life despite his protestations to the contrary. Luka has struggled with writing his step four, and when he begins to approach step five the relationship between the two men comes under extreme pressure.
Words fail me as I try to describe just how good Martin Freeman and Jack Lowden are as James and Luka – and how brilliantly their delivery of David Ireland’s words takes us on a roller-coaster ride of emotions. In the after-show Q&A with these three men, we heard that the sympathies of Scottish audiences were totally with the troubled Luka, while in England it was English James who got the sympathy for encountering the large, loud, in your face Scot. This must make me a Scot [by adoption], for my sympathy was totally with Luka, both for his initial struggles and the incredible progress he made. James’ initial gentle calm helpfulness cracked under pressure, and a much less likeable person began to emerge…
I don’t want to go into greater detail: you’ll have to see this for yourself! There’s incredible humour – again, particularly Scottish in some places, with the cinema audience laughing heartily while the theatre audience seemed quite silent. The language is rich, very graphic in places, and wonderfully descriptive both of emotions and situations. A constant thread throughout the evening is the ‘God’ of AA – both deeply moving and hysterically funny at times, with a wonderful final twist.
The filming of the play is incredibly well done – we are virtually beside James and Luka on stage much of the time, and can see the slightest trace of emotions flitting across their faces. The play began its life in 2024 with National Theatre of Scotland productions in Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasow. Earlier this year, the show transferred to the West End of London and was a sell-out success at the intimate, in-the-round @sohoplace theatre. It’s this production that was captured live and which you will be able to watch in cinemas from November 27th [thefifthstep.ntlive.com]
This is one of the most powerful pieces of theatre I’ve seen in a long time – you’d be a fool to miss it!
The Fifth Step, National Theatre Live!, General Release on 18th November at Cinemas Nationwide
ScotsGay Arts 