Theatreguide.London
www.theatreguide.london
The
Fifth Step
sohoplace
Summer 2025
David Ireland’s amusing, often shockingly absurd ninety-minute play The Fifth Step, performed on the almost bare, in-the-round stage of sohoplace, consists of discussions between Luka, a recovering alcoholic following the steps of the Alcoholics Anonymous programme, and his older sponsor James (Martin Freeman).
The restless unhappy Luka immediately says 'I think I might be an incel'. Without alcohol, he doesn’t feel he has the confidence to speak to women. In response to James's attempt to counsel him about the issue, he tells the married James that It's alright for you. You’ve got pussy on tap.'
Their conversations range from meditation to more intimate subjects, such as masturbation, with Luka claiming he masturbates 20 times a day.
Jack Lowden gives a physical intensity to the character of Luka as he paces about the stage, his eyes often lowered as he speaks, his feet in motion even when he sits down. Martin Freeman is utterly convincing as the wiser James, encouraging Luka to talk about the things that worry him.
Later, after exercising on a treadmill in a gym alongside a man he believes is the actor Willem Defoe, who once played Jesus, Luka becomes interested in Christianity.
The men increasingly begin to question each other’s account of themselves. James says a friend has seen Luka drinking alcohol, and Luka has heard that James may have behaved inappropriately with a woman he sponsored.
There is an audible gasp from the audience when James responds by saying, 'Men of my generation have a different understanding of what counts as consent.'
Although Luka grows calmer, things become surreal when, following his dream in which James is dressed as a rabbit, James appears eating carrot cake and wearing a fluffy rabbit-like headgear.
That scene makes us question whether subsequent scenes in which James becomes increasingly paranoid and physically threatening are simply imagined by the insecure Luka.
The strength of this performance is its surreal male humour, but the play does give priority to its jokes over any real depth to the characters or serious engagement with issues it raises, such as male vulnerability, sexism, religion and the Alcoholics Anonymous programme.
Keith
McKenna
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Review of The Fifth Step - sohoplace Theatre 2025