After years in the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step programme, James agrees to become the sponsor of newcomer Luka.
Step 1: honesty.
Step 2: faith.
Step 3: surrender.
Step 4: self-examination.
On the long and tortuous journey to sobriety, the pair bond over trade stories, and black coffee, slowly building up a fragile friendship from their shared experiences.
Through the programme, their conversations must turn to confessionals on the cusp of Step 5, with their progress hinging on Luka revealing certain dark secrets that could lead him back to alcohol. But it becomes clear that James too has dangerous truths in his past. And these truths directly threaten the trust on which both their recoveries depend.
Following its acclaimed sold-out Edinburgh season, Olivier Award-winner Jack Lowden reprises his role as Luka joined by Emmy, BAFTA, and SAG Award winner Martin Freeman as James.
The Fifth Step is intimately directed in-the-round @sohoplace by Finn den Hertog and is a subversively funny, provocative, and entertaining new play from David Ireland.