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

THE FIFTH STEP

Dial M for Murder

Cambridge Arts Theatre & UK Tour

Reviewed – 5th October 2021

★★★

“Diana Vickers’ performance is sublime”

Retired tennis player Tony (Tom Chambers) hatches a plan to murder his society wife Margot (Diana Vickers) in revenge for her affair with film script writer Max (Michael Salami), requiring Inspector Hubbard (Christopher Harper) to investigate the ensuing proceedings. But that’s enough of the plot of this early genre-defining murder mystery – there are no spoilers here.

For a show that takes a telephony reference for its title – NB. for younger audience members, the letter M was included with the number 6 on an old-style telephone dial – it is no surprise that the telephone, positioned centre stage, has an important role in this play. A pity that the sound effect of the telephone ringing is rather underwhelming and that the too similar sound of the doorbell, on occasions, causes confusion.

All the action takes place in the living room of Tony and Margot’s Maida Vale flat (Designer David Woodhead). A large sofa takes up centre stage, the front door to the apartment at the rear and a pair of French windows to the side leading out past some fine-looking greenery into the sun-lit garden. It is up to Margot and the semi-undressed Max to set the scene for us. With a lot of narrative to get through, and whilst facing up-stage, some of Michael Salami’s diction is not completely clear. Diana Vickers’ performance is sublime. Her text is beautifully precise and, over the course of the evening, we see her turn convincingly through a range of emotions from the alluringly flirtatious to the hysterically distraught.

It is mentioned that Margot enjoys staying in to watch plays on TV, which is a nice touch as this play by Frederick Knott received its first public airing as an episode of BBC Sunday-Night Theatre back in 1952. It was Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film adaptation, with a BAFTA winning performance by Grace Kelly, that brought fame to the play and the lighting design (Lizzie Powell) pays homage to this with beautifully cast shadow effects onto the white walls. Another effect of dipping the central lighting in the room at particular moments in the narrative is less successful.

Director Anthony Banks moves his four actors around the stage – circumnavigating the central sofa – with skill and dexterity. Tom Chambers’ pointed features and angular movements lift his character directly from the pages of a graphic novel. If he doesn’t always appear callous enough for his proposed actions, there is one exquisitely foreboding moment as his false smile turns in slow motion into a rictus grin whilst an unseen clock ticks loudly down the seconds.

Christopher Harper, playing a double role, first appears as Captain Lesgate – suave and debonair but with a chequered history – before taking on the dogged figure of Inspector Hubbard. Played in the tradition of the all-knowing detective, Harper’s performance is compelling. With nervous energy and vocal trickery, the Inspector’s after-thoughts are, of course, the crux to detecting the calumny and the audience wills him on to uncover the truth.

This play is a most enjoyable light entertainment and, despite the word Murder in its title, an amiable drama with more than a few laughs and with only a little threat to the watching audience.

Tag Archives: Lizzie Powell

THE FIFTH STEP

★★★★

@Sohoplace

THE FIFTH STEP

@Sohoplace

★★★★

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