The Fifth Step
Soho Place Theatre
★★★★

LUKA is a recovering alcoholic. As he reaches the fifth step of his Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step recovery programme, he encounters his new AA sponsor James: former alcoholic and some years his senior.

This blazing two-hander charts the two men across a series of meetings and is, at heart, a deep, dark comedy. James’s simplistic attempts at restructuring Luka are delightfully impeded by the daily impulses and confusions that beset both men. Both stagger together through the endless maze of their relative mental and spiritual states; both demonstrate conscious control of only a fraction of the world they inhabit. And it is this dichotomy that makes us laugh — it is, ultimately, the blind leading the blind. The dialogue races along with not a cliché in sight. And the acting is superb.

The play, written by David Ireland, is based on the playwright’s own experience of alcoholism, the AA and the journey to recovery. It began life at the Edinburgh Festival in 2024 and now transfers to the Soho Place Theatre, courtesy of Neal Street, Playful Productions and the National Theatre of Scotland. Jack Lowden reprises his role as Luka while Martin Freeman raises the game in his new casting as James. Together, they provide what must be a performance masterclass, and do make this feel like theatre at the top of its game.

They are helped here by the wonderfully flexible stage and auditorium located in the still new Soho Place Theatre. The action sits in the round, combining a sense of intimacy with a glamorous West End ambience. Props are minimal in the play, allowing the ever-present black coffees to command their rightful significance as the two men sip and talk, sharing the unspoken misery of an alcohol-free zone. And the tension never flags, director Finn den Hertog moving the drama with pace end energy as serious truths about the characters quickly emerge.

Luka – while bemoaning his absence of sex life – confesses to watching porn and masturbating – yes – 20 times a day. Meanwhile, God, the Catholic church and Luka’s own spiritual development haunt his journey from self-declared atheism at the beginning to practically hallucinogenic beliefs at the end. And he conveys to us – almost entirely without words – the hair’s breadth that holds his deeply addictive self from the obvious catharsis of suicide.

James, on the other hand, holds tight to the anchor that is his marriage, only to reveal as the play progresses an inner sexual powerhouse that may or may not have taken a dissolute turn. And both men carry with them the legacy of drunken, abusive fathers so much so that the play explores masculinity every bit as much as it penetrates addiction.

Freeman and Lowden are riveting in the two roles: both of them seriously masculine, but with their pasts etched on their faces and their body language always betraying vestiges of despair.  

A mid-flow, developing plot and a lightweight ending ultimately prioritise the comedy of this piece over a deeper, more meaningful outcome. But stirring and compelling stuff.  

Runs until July 26. Box Office: sohoplace.org