Theatre review: The Fifth Step

Back to @sohoplace, the theatre with a name so current it thinks it's figured out what the "F" stands for in TFI Friday, for David Ireland's latest play. And while one of the characters is a lapsed Catholic and the other embraces Protestantism during the course of the story, this sees the playwright widen his scope from the legacy of the Troubles that has been the backdrop to his previous work. Not that Luka (Jack Lowden) and James (Martin Freeman) don't have their own troubled histories, but theirs are with alcohol. Luka has just joined Alcoholics Anonymous and in the opening scene, following a discussion about the importance of choosing the right sponsor in which James could be construed to be pitching for the job, he does indeed ask the older man to mentor him. The sometimes fractious and combative relationship that follows starts to get even more personal once they reach The Fifth Step of the programme.

Theatre review: Mates in Chelsea

The fact that the Royal Court, still probably best known for popularising kitchen sink plays and retaining a reputation as a political powerhouse, is based at the heart of Sloane Square has always been a bit of a contradiction, and one the venue has occasionally played on. The latest variation on the theme is also an attempt to link the location to the scripted reality show Made in Chelsea - "The Poshos," as my sister calls it - and the obliviously privileged characters people are familiar with from TV. Rory Mullarkey's Mates in Chelsea puts modern-day aristocrats in a P.G. Wodehouse-inspired farce in which Tug Bungay (Laurie Kynaston) lives a louche life in his Chelsea flat, looked after by his grumpy Leninist housekeeper Mrs Hanratty (Amy Booth-Steel,) whom he keeps around mainly because a wise-cracking Jeeves type suits the image of himself he likes to project.