Review: The Fifth Step, Dundee Rep and Scotland tour - subtler fare from David Ireland but no less funny or sharp
24/08/2024
David Ireland’s new play The Fifth Step had its first performance with a packed house at the Dundee Rep before transferring for a short run in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
It's a different play tonally to Ulster American (which I was ‘meh about) and Cyprus Avenue, which was grim, shocking (and excellent).
While not shying away from difficult topics, it feels 'relatively' gentler - for Ireland, anyway.
The fifth step refers to the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery stage, whereby wrongs, things you are ashamed of, are confessed to another, having drawn up your list as the fourth step.
The play opens with Luka (Jack Lowden) choosing James (Sean Gilder) as his sponsor. Well, it opens with a typically frank conversation that centres on James’ own sponsor, who was gay and whether gay men inevitably fancy all men.
(Luka thinks so based on his own thoughts about women and sex.)
He is struggling with the adjustment to 100% abstention from alcohol. His social life centres on pubs, and his friends aren't very supportive. He doesn't have a job, and when he’s not trying to get work, he spends his time watching porn and ‘relieving himself’.
He relieves himself rather a lot.
James is a solid advisor, almost the father figure he never had. It is easy to forget that James is also a recovering alcoholic himself with murk in his past that comes with it.
It is a play that bubbles with humour and wit as the two men journey together towards maintaining sobriety, sharing more and more personal details about their lives. But during that journey, there is a subtle, slow shift in the power dynamics as 'steps' are completed and secrets revealed.
And that doesn't bring out the best in either.
In presenting two alcoholics, David Ireland is, in essence, giving us two unreliable narrators striving for some sort of honesty as part of the process of recovery.
He is clever in his misdirection, raising many questions.
The performances are pitched perfectly to add layers of meaning. Jack Lowden beautifully portrays Luka's bumpy transition from turmoil to finding his feet and what comes next. It is a performance of comedy and pathos.
Sean Gilder is, at turns, solid, dependable, quietly calculating and roiling.
This is a play that doesn't go quite where you expect, both in subject matter and narrative, while steering clear of obvious shocks. It is funny and sharp, and I'm giving it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.
(I bought my own ticket.)
The Fifth Step, Dundee Rep and touring
Written by David Ireland
Directed by Finn den Hertog
Starring Jack Lowden and Sean Gilder
Running time 90 minutes without an interval
The Fifth Step will continue its tour at the Royal Lyceum Edinburgh 21- 25 August and the Pavilion Theatre Glasgow 28-31 Aug. Check the individual theatre website for details and to buy tickets.
Recently reviewed:
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