The Fifth Step
- 1hr 30min. No interval.
- Soho Place Theatre (@sohoplace)
- Booking details
- Booking from: Friday, 9 May 2025 Booking until: Friday, 25 July 2025
- Running time: 1hr 30min. No interval.
- Age restrictions
- Important information - Please read
The Fifth Step description
The first four steps go smoothly enough, but the fifth step proves a lot more challenging. Meet James, who has agreed to sponsor Luka at Alcoholics Anonymous. The Fifth Step tracks their journey through trust to friendship, then onwards into something a great deal darker.
Having already thrilled audiences in Glasgow, Dundee and at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival, David Ireland's powerful new play about the journey to sobriety is set to take the West End on a memorable journey.
The people talent behind the magic
Jack Lowden reprises his role as Luka, a BAFTA Scotland and Olivier Award winning actor known for his work in Slow Horses on Apple TV. He won his Olivier award in 2013 for Richard Eyre's adaptation of Ibsen's Ghosts and has appeared in the movies Dunkirk, Calibre, and Mary Queen Of Scots. Martin Freeman is an Emmy and BAFTA award winner with hits like Fargo, Sherlock, Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, and The Office under his belt. He won his 2011 TV BAFTA for his role as Dr John Watson in the BBC series Sherlock.
The play is Directed by Finn den Hertog with Set and Costume Design by Milla Clarke, Lighting Design by Lizzie Powell, Sound Design by Mark Melville, Movement by Jenny Ogilvie and Casting by Stuart Burt CDG. The Fifth Step is produced by Neal Street Productions, Playful Productions and National Theatre of Scotland in association with Nica Burns.
The plot
Two men create a fragile friendship through their shared experiences during steps one to four of the Alcoholics Anonymous journey: honesty, faith, surrender and self-examination. The fifth step is confession and as it turns out, both men have dark secrets to reveal. Will these uncomfortable truths threaten their recovery?
