The Fifth Step: Writer David Ireland reveals inspiration behind hit play starring Slow Horses star Jack Lowden

Award-winning playwright David Ireland has drawn on those early experiences in Scotland for The Fifth Step, a play directed by Finn den Hertog, through Lowden’s character Luka.

In the play, Freeman’s character James is as a long-term member of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) who becomes a sponsor to 30-something newcomer Luka. The play follows Luka’s way to sobriety by way of the 12 steps.

It was National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) chief executive Jackie Wylie who initially reached out to Ireland about creating a play. She had met Lowden, of Slow Horses fame, and asked the playwright how he would feel about penning a play for the actor.

At a Q&A session in Edinburgh, Ms Wylie told Ireland: “I found out that Jack was really excited about working with you and I found out you were really excited about working with Jack so basically I’m a matchmaker. So I asked you about how you felt about it all.”

What does Scotland mean to me?

Ireland said: “I’ve lived in Scotland a long time, but I’ve mainly written about Northern Ireland and the troubles and the politics.

“I thought maybe I should write something in Scotland. And then I thought ‘what does Scotland mean to me?’ My experience of Scotland was drinking, stopping drinking and being very lonely and not being able to find a girlfriend.

“The two main events in my life had seemed connected because round about the time you [Jackie Wylie] asked me, I just started going to church and had become a Christian.

“So it was the combination of looking back on stopping drinking when I was 23, which was in 1999, then becoming a Christian. I was thinking a lot about those two moments in my life, so that’s where the play came from.”

The Fifth Step, which was originally presented in Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow by the NTS, was captured live earlier this year from its sold-out London West End run.

Dozens gathered on Tuesday evening for the global premiere of The Fifth Step ahead of the play being released to thousands worldwide in cinemas from November 27. It is the first time a NTS production has been broadcast and streamed for National Theatre Live.

Ireland said it was “very weird” as, during the screening, he realised it was Edinburgh Filmhouse where he “replaced alcohol with movies” all those years ago. The Fifth Step’s Luka’s love for movies is also mentioned during the play.

“I only realised when it got to the second scene of the play that I came here to this cinema before,” he said. “I stopped drinking in Edinburgh and I started going to AA meetings on Cockburn Street. I kind of replaced alcohol with movies.

“I came here all the time. It was very weird and I was like Luka. I actually think those first two scenes were very similar conversations I had with people at the cafe in the cinema.

“When this cinema was mentioned, I never even thought about it and it only hit me when I was sitting there.

“So it’s kind of surreal to be sitting there where I watched O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Billy Elliot and so on for the first time, and then watching Jack Lowden play me and then Martin Freeman play the me of today.”