'The Fifth Step' review — Martin Freeman and Jack Lowden are compelling opposites in this scorching, blackly comic two-hander

Read our review of The Fifth Step, written by David Ireland, now in performances at @sohoplace to 26 July.

The intensely intimate relationship a recovering alcoholic can have with their sponsor is the subject of this sharp, blackly comic two-hander from David Ireland, which transfers to London following a run in Edinburgh last summer, retaining cast member Jack Lowden (Slow Horses) and acquiring household name Martin Freeman to star opposite him.

Luka (Lowden) has joined AA in a bid to stop drinking. James (Freeman) has been clean 25 years, and now sponsors other alcoholics looking to give it up. Luka asks James to sponsor him, James agrees, and the two become close before boundaries are crossed and James becomes increasingly controlling.

In director Finn den Hertog’s production, Lowden – sporting a vaguely ginger head of hair and beard – bears more than a passing resemblance to a young Ireland, who himself has been sober since attending AA meetings in Glasgow in his 20s. Whatever his personal experience of AA, Ireland is too clever to write a straightforward guided journey towards recuperation. Instead, he explores the see-sawing potential for platonic affection and crippling hurt to develop when two people have built a reliance on being vulnerable with each other.

The play’s name is a reference to the stage of AA’s 12-step process in which alcoholics acknowledge the harm they’ve caused through drinking, and over 90 minutes, confessions are shared and trust is formed over a number of one-to-one meetings – then broken down, as admissions are later used as ammunition. Though the behaviour of both characters shocks at points, neither is painted as good or bad; these are fluid, sensitive beings striving to live virtuously. When Luka enters into a relationship that is contentious, James’s approach to tearing it down appears to be less for Luka’s own benefit than his own feelings of paranoia and guilt.

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.

On Milla Clarke’s wall-less set, which appears like a therapy room blown open, there is nowhere to hide. All either character can do once they’ve entered this space is take a seat on a fold-out chair, sip from a disposable coffee cup, and open up.

Links between alcoholism and other forms of addiction – chiefly sex and porn – are raised too, and the idea is posed that in order to be fully on board with AA, you need to have a spiritual awakening. This paves the way for Luka – who we see transform from a hunched-over fidget to calm, straight-shouldered body-builder – to find Jesus at the gym, and for Ireland to explore religious hallucinations with frank humour.

The sudden shift in the dynamics of this relationship is not entirely convincing. Would James really switch from cheery nice guy to raging bully with so little goading? Luka’s growth, though, is heartening. The production opens with the Billy Joe Shaver song "I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal (But I’m Gonna Be a Diamond Someday)". And by the end, we start to see him glow.

The Fifth Step is at @sohoplace to 26 July. Book The Fifth Step tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Photo credit: The Fifth Step (Photos by Johan Persson)