The Fifth Step – The Lyceum, Edinburgh

World Premier

The fifth step of the AA 12 step recovery program states,

Admit to God, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of our wrongs.

This exercise begins to provide emotional, mental and spiritual relief. By sharing wrong with a trusted confidant, guilt and shame start to melt away.

At least, that’s the theory.

The Fifth Step, a play by David Ireland, received its World premier tonight. A dark comedy, directed by Finn den Hertog, stars a brilliantly watchable Jack Lowden as Luka, a recovering alcoholic searching for a sponsor in the Alcoholics Anonymous program. He meets James, a recovered alcoholic, played with assurance and sensitivity by Sean Gilder, an older man who, initially at least, seems ideal to guide him through the twelve steps.

The stage rotates to reveal Luka and James in the corner of a hall, they sit combatively sizing each other up, mano a mano. Sexual preferences and religious inclinations are top of Luka’s list of questions for James. Are you gay? followed by Do you believe in God? No and, I’d say I’m more spiritual than religious, seem to satisfy the younger man.

James admits that his own sponsor, many years ago, was gay and that he even attended Gay AA meetings with him. Gay AA? Who knew.

The writer paints the two characters beautifully in their words and actions. Luka, a twitching, spring-loaded boy in a man’s body, hops around, ready to spill out his life story to a stranger, or fall in love at the drop of a hat. Desperate, lonely, addicted to porn and in desperate need of a father figure, or some other stabilising force. Whilst this might all seem very heavy, the information is conveyed with plenty of humour, and nuance, which is the real joy of Ireland’s writing.

James, on the other hand is rational, calm and contemplative. Don’t go to bars, he warns Luka with avuncular wisdom, Avoid wet places, you don’t go to a brothel for a kiss!

As the play progresses, the two men almost change places, as Luka grows stronger, and James disintegrates.

The elegant revolving set and beautiful lighting provide multiple locations, the café, the gym, the conservatory. At one point Luka breaks down the walls between adjacent sets emphasising his growth and spiritual awakening. The fracturing nature of The Fifth Step, and its hallucinogenic undercurrent help to always make this an interesting and unpredictable journey.

Ultimately, the early promise of hilarity dries up. It is replaced with a dry, unevenly paced and directionally challenged piece which doesn’t seem to know how to end, it’s like that mountain with multiple false summits. But that’s intentional, that’s the allegory at the heart of this play about alcohol addiction, which does not profess to have all the answers.

Reviewer: Greg Holstead

Reviewed: 21st August 2024

North West End UK Rating: