Tag Archives: David Ireland

THE FIFTH STEP

★★★★

@Sohoplace

THE FIFTH STEP

@Sohoplace

★★★★

“the direction is slick and there’s always a sense that something is around the corner”

About halfway through this bracing alcohol-and-redemption two-hander, James suddenly appears in a rabbit’s head.

This is a call-back to a dream that Luka recounts, Luka being a newcomer to the step programme of Alcoholics Anonymous. In the dream, his sponsor James appears like a rabbit, and so he does again in real life.

This is an interesting fantastical element, we think, seeing the world through Luka’s eyes.
James, in the rabbit’s head, offers Luka some cake.

‘What kind of cake?’ asks Luka.

‘Carrot.’

That’s the whole point of this elaborate set-up – a carrot joke. The rabbit’s head is swiftly dispatched and is of no further use or consequence.

Therein lies the tension at the heart of The Fifth Step. We can see playwright David Ireland’s impish inclinations at work. He can’t help himself. If there’s a gag, he’s going to veer off course to hoover it up whatever the cost to character, balance or timing. Now we’re thinking: that whole bit about Luka’s dream? Was that just there to construct the rabbit-carrot gag?

The writer really wants us laughing. He is successful – for it is a very funny play – but it is also an effortful and visible urge. It means many of those tight 90 minutes are devoted to set-ups and punchlines are not available to develop character, relationships and substance.

Because the play also has a hankering to tackle big issues. There is the overarching scenario – a suicidal alcoholic seeking aid from a long sober veteran. This leads to discussions about the oedipal reflexes of fathers and sons, spiritual awakenings, inventories of shameful behaviour (aka, the fifth step) and – hold on to your hats – sex. Lots and lots of talk about self-pleasuring.

The result is resoundingly entertaining but frustratingly slim.

That is not to say the audience is short-changed.

For one, it is a very comfortable watch. Yes, the expletive-rich script can prove occasionally jarring, but the action speeds along, the dialogue flies about like a pinball, the direction is slick and there’s always a sense that something is around the corner – some twist or revelation – that will provide fresh juice.

The stage (set design Milla Clarke), in the round, aids this sense of urgency. It is reminiscent of a scattered circle of folding chairs at an AA meeting but soon becomes a wrestling ring, with two minds locked in an embrace, fighting each other to a breathless standstill.

Secondly, there are the performances. They are simply superb – low-key and silky. Jack Lowden is the freshly minted star of Slow Horses and here he reprises his role as Luka from a short Edinburgh run. He is all chaotic energy, his leg always bouncing, his mind always racing.

Martin Freeman, as James, has a knack for freighted stillness. And, of course, he has a history of hangdog deadpanning that is firmly part of comedy legend. But we also know – if only from his Bafta-nominated role in The Responder – that beneath that placid exterior, roiling anger bubbles and seethes.

Their parts are underwritten and their relationship too mercurial to be wholly conclusive but in the moment, there is a wonderful chemistry. Finn Den Hertog’s direction makes full use of their combustible contrasts – younger and older, tall and short, keen and jaded, motionless and jittery.

All this makes for a brisk and punchy tour of two fractured psyches struggling to account for a lifetime of queasy impulses. Worth a watch, if you dare.



THE FIFTH STEP

@Sohoplace

Reviewed on 17th May 2025y

by Giles Broadbent

Photography by Johan Persson

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

A CHRISTMAS CAROL(ISH) | ★★★★ | November 2024
DEATH OF ENGLAND: CLOSING TIME | ★★★★ | August 2024
DEATH OF ENGLAND: DELROY | ★★★★★ | July 2024
DEATH OF ENGLAND: MICHAEL | ★★★★★ | July 2024
THE LITTLE BIG THINGS | ★★★★ | September 2023
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN | ★★★★★ | May 2023

 

 

THE FIFTH STEP

THE FIFTH STEP

THE FIFTH STEP

Ulster American

★★★★★

Riverside Studios

ULSTER AMERICAN at Riverside Studios

★★★★★

“A play about crossing the line within a play that frequently crosses the line”

David Ireland’s “Ulster American” touches on just about every topic that gets people’s blood boiling, and in the space of an hour and a half, inflates them in order to puncture them with the sharp skewer of satire that he has become famed for. Somewhere along the line during his career, Ireland has come to think that he wants to offend people. “As a writer, I want to be socially irresponsible” he once stated in an interview about his latest offering. “If you won’t produce it because of the reaction, that’s a very frightening place for us all to be in”. Fortunately for us, his play has been produced. It divided critics at its premiere in Edinburgh in 2018 and is now testing the waters in West London with Jeremy Herrin’s star-studded revival.

The premise is a joke. The old ‘Englishman, Irishman and American’ variety. But that is the only thing it has in common. From the outset, the humour is considerably darker, and the punchline is jet black. Set in real time, the evening before rehearsals start for a new play in London, it brings the three key players together in a night that spirals out of control. Jay Conway (Woody Harrelson) is the Oscar-winning actor taking the lead in the play that connects with his Irish roots. Leigh Carver (Andy Serkis) is the ambitious director who will do anything to get noticed. Ruth Davenport (Louisa Harland) is the Northern Irish playwright whose voice must be heard.

Ruth is late for the meeting, and so we are greeted by the two men killing time by indulging in some shocking banter. Harrelson’s self-aggrandising Hollywood star, Jay, is definitely the alpha male while Serkis, as Leigh, hovers between alpha and beta, unsure when to let his obsequiousness make way for his own voice. Both men are ‘feminists’, or so they say. Both men are deluded. But there is something far more dangerous going on than the mere misappropriation of language and self-appointed labels. And it takes Ruth not only to light the fuse, but also to detonate it. Many bombshells are dropped in the process, provoking the echoing thought in our minds; ‘did they really just say that?’

“You might not want to look at it, but you ought to go and see this play”

The three actors are simply outstanding in their roles. Serkis skilfully deploys the many faces of a politician as he fluctuates between squirming smiles and contradictions, until his real temperament is revealed when he realises the game is up. Harrelson hilariously cuts a ridiculous figure, wielding male self-righteousness like a loaded firearm, while Ruth catches the bullets in her teeth to spit them back. Harland’s character, despite the play attempting to establish a precarious female centric quality, is perhaps the least likeable of the three. Initially starstruck at meeting an idol in Jay, we don’t quite believe her rapid and absolute switch to the dominant, immutable, writer-diva with the authority to dictate that not one word of her script can be altered. Come on, we’re dealing with an Oscar winning actor here!

Among the topics that are ripped apart are national and personal identity, religion, loyalty, power, misogyny, feminism, gender, responsibility, Brexit, politics, territory, the ‘N’ word, #MeToo, culture, censorship, social media, rape, blackmail… you name it. But the focus is drawn back to the power balance between men and women. Words the two men carelessly let spill from their unfiltered mouths are later taken out of context and then used to make or break one another’s careers. Or lives. There is plenty of food for thought as the stakes get higher and higher, and these deplorable characters reach dizzying heights of ridicule. What is alarming, however, is the proximity to reality. The damage of misconstrued words is a genuine threat in our society.

“Ulster American” is a play within a play. A play about crossing the line within a play that frequently crosses the line. The satire occasionally adopts an over-daubed, ‘painting-by-numbers’ style. And the zeitgeist that Ireland vividly expresses gets somewhat washed away as the play dives headlong into farce, and the realms of cartoon barbarity. The violence is less shocking than the dialogue. Perhaps this is deliberate. Are words a more terrifying weapon than actions?

The three actors give thrilling performances that throw moral acceptances into the wind and let us pick up the pieces to try and make sense of them. It is insanely funny and deeply flawed. It will provoke discussion – even arguments, but hopefully not as extreme. You never know though. That is what is so vital about Ireland’s writing. Yes – it is heightened and unreal. But however warped, it is still a mirror to our fractured society. You might not want to look at it, but you ought to go and see this play.

 


ULSTER AMERICAN at Riverside Studios

Reviewed on 13th December 2023

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Johan Persson

 


 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Othello | ★★★★ | October 2023
Flowers For Mrs Harris | ★★★★ | October 2023
Run to the Nuns – The Musical | ★★★★ | July 2023
The Sun Will Rise | ★★★ | July 2023
Tarantino Live: Fox Force Five & The Tyranny Of Evil Men | ★★★★★ | June 2023
Killing The Cat | ★★ | March 2023
Cirque Berserk! | ★★★★★ | February 2023

Ulster American

Ulster American

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