EIF: The Fifth Step @ The Lyceum

The Fifth Step attempts to brew an audience’s empathy for the most unexpected of characters: an alcoholic incel and his troubled older sponsor whose flaws increasingly unravel. The duo is one of opposite forces. Whereas Luka wants to change his life for the better and get sober, the cynicism and paranoia of his sponsor James grow increasingly apparent and divert one’s attention to the co-existence of self-development and self-hatred, as well as a hatred for corrupt institutions.

The play grapples with the process of reclaiming oneself through one's faith after alcoholism has dominated them. On one hand, it delineates the practice of repentance through faith as progressive. On the other, it exposes the potential damage to this progression by the disillusionment with Western constructions of 'faith' through institutional exploitation. James fervently resents the Catholic church and has found appeal in Buddhism (as is a common trope in the West).

The play exhibits audibly and visually intense scenes on its revolving stage. There are absurd visions, rhythmic exercise scenes and dramatic lighting changes. Each sequence finds itself aiding the quintessential encapsulation of the isolated and resentful man who pursues self-transformation to escape regression. James cannot trust the structures that informed his adolescence and young adulthood, so how can Luka trust James?

The duo's relationship is informed by hypocrisy and anxiety and is characterised as an expressive outlet for both characters' immoral actions. At times, the relationship touches one’s heart, and its absurdity always triggers a boisterous crowd response. Yet, kept between themselves, their secrets serve more as unresolved remnants of corruption than as tokens of self-awareness. The men are poisoned by the institutions that have raised them and the substances in which they have found a dangerous escape. The piece asks viewers to witness vulnerability in its most morally discombobulated sense.

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The Fifth Step, Royal Lyceum Theatre, part of Edinburgh International Festival, run ended