National Theatre Live’s cinema release of The Fifth Step offers audiences across the UK the chance to see one of the most talked-about plays of the past year - and it more than earns the big-screen treatment.
David Ireland’s tense, darkly funny, and at times unsettling two-hander is powered by two remarkable performances from Jack Lowden and Martin Freeman, captured with an intimacy that feels almost uncomfortably close in the best possible way.
The production, which originally premiered at last years’s Edinburgh Festival, draws the audience inside the fragile, shifting dynamic between Luka (Lowden), a volatile newcomer to Alcoholics Anonymous, and James (Freeman), the seemingly composed sponsor guiding him through the 12-step programme. NT Live’s cameras heighten the claustrophobia: every twitch, every silence, every evasive glance is magnified.
The story centres on the approach to Step 5 - the moment of confession - yet Ireland uses that framework to explore far more: masculinity, sha…
