Twenty times a day?!?

The latest in an occasional series of theatre reviews...

The Fifth Step : @sohoplace 

This is one I picked purely on the basis of the people in it, namely Martin Freeman and Jack Lowden - both of whom I've enjoyed in many things and I felt like they'd be good on stage. Apart from that I knew absolutely nothing about it (and the stage wasn't giving much away)

It turns out the chairs represent an AA meeting and we meet Luka (Jack Lowden) who has only recently started attending and decides to ask the older, soberer James (Martin Freeman) to be his sponsor. The play then follows their journey across several meetings, often focussing on the fifth step, which is "admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs". And boy do some truths come out...

Both actors are very good in this and they work well together - which is fortunate, because they're the only people in it and are both on stage the entire time. Martin Freeman didn't play James in the play's initial run, but the role almost feels as though he was written for him. Luka is more of a brooding role than I was expecting for Jack Lowden (who was in the initial run) and I was wondering why they've given him a Scottish accent, but (of course) Jack is actually Scottish, but I've only see him play English types, so I didn't know.

What I really wasn't expecting is for this to be funny - partly because of the subject matter but also because I often just don't find things nearly as humorous as those around me, but there were a decent number of proper laughs in this for me. A lot of this is down to the writing (which is well done by David Ireland) but the comic timing of both actors is spot on and used to good effect.

If I had to gripe about anything, I think the play is a bit short for its content - the main revelation just felt a bit like it came out of nowhere with no obvious reason for it (other than it makes for good drama). I didn't feel short-changed though because you get two actors doing some proper acting for 90 minutes (with no interval) - and I was actually glad it wasn't longer because it allowed me to watch the second half of the England-Sweden game!

All in all, this is a strong and surprisingly funny play featuring two actors doing a great job in a nice intimate venue - I would recommend it, but it's only on for another week and looks to be sold out, so you'll just have to take my word for it!

The Deep Blue Sea - Too much 50s repression for me