Latest news with #MartinFreeman
Times
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Audiences are turned off by long plays — aren't we all?
I don't know about you, but I know what I don't want in theatre. I don't want shows that drift on and on … oh, except the shows that justify every moment of their three-hour-plus running time, such as Jerusalem or The Lehman Trilogy. Maybe the incoming Broadway smash Stereophonic (190min) will fit the same bill, as the New York reviews suggest it will. I don't want shows that feel like they are serving short measures either, not for these prices. Oh, except for excellent interval-free plays in the West End at the moment, such as The Fifth Step (with Martin Freeman and Jack Lowden, 90min) or Retrograde (about Sidney Poiter, 90min). Or, a few months ago, Macbeth (110min) with David Tennant and Cush
Daily Mail
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
PATRICK MARMION reviews The Fifth Step at Soho Place: Lost soul Jack Lowden tackles Martin Freeman in a ruthless boxing match of a drama
Jack Lowden has become one of the hottest properties on telly since starring opposite Gary Oldman in Apple TV+'s hit spy drama Slow Horses. In fact, our Jack's got so big that no less a figure than Hobbit and Sherlock star Martin Freeman has become his wingman in a new play by David Ireland about two men in Alcoholics Anonymous. As is common with AA stories, the subject matter is raw, excruciating and often alarmingly funny. Lowden's nervy Scottish character, Luka, is a desperate loner and end-of-road boozer who identifies as an incel, or 'involuntary celibate'. He's grown jealous of married mates who have sex (not his word) 'on tap'. And, in addition to long-haul descents into alcohol bingeing, he has porn and self- abuse as surrogate, back-up addictions. He is, in short, in free fall. We are a long way from Lowden's ill-fated MI5 agent River Cart- wright in Slow Horses. In desperation, Luka has submitted to the 12-step programme for recovering drinkers in a seemingly vain attempt to turn his life around with help from his 25-years-sober mentor James (Freeman). And Lowden gives us an absolutely top-of-the-range performance, fully exploring the psychological cul-de-sacs and self-defeating wiles of his dismal character. Lowden's wounded puppy-dog eyes come as standard for a young man who is dangerously lonely and hopelessly vulnerable. It's an understated, nervously volatile display that's simultaneously edgy and guarded. Luka has whole repertoires of defensive ticks – wardrobes of scratching, catalogues of leg tremors and gamuts of blinking. But, blessed with a benign, unaffected idiocy, you can't help loving Lowden's lost soul, who's been saved after encountering Jesus one night at a multi-gym. Freeman by contrast as the fully-recovered Mr Ordinary oozes the complacent personality of a Marks & Spencer mannequin. With typical highly-focused fidgeting, Freeman's James is an ostentatiously patient alter-ego and secular confessor to Luka. But it's the work of Ireland's confrontational boxing match of a drama that ensures Freeman's shell of anti-charisma gets cracked too – as both men grapple with AA's Fifth Step of admitting their wrongs, to themselves, each other and to God. Yes, God features quite prominently in Ireland's ruthlessly unecclestiastical writing, although there must be moments when the Almighty wishes he could bow out. But mobilising four-letter, weapons-grade repartee, Ireland is never merely gratuitous and has a genius for embarrassing moral dilemmas. Never flattering us with what we'd like to believe of ourselves, he is an aficionado of unacceptable attitudes and shameful home truths. This left viewers joyously grateful. Women in the audience in particular near howled with laughter at Luka's pitifully sexist delusions. We men may prefer to crawl under a stone. Nor does Finn Den Hertog's production leave either of his actors anywhere to hide, with spectators on all four sides of a rectangle of fitted carpet. So, in addition to the unburthening and self-torture, it's a chastening exercise in forgiveness and acceptance. Unsurprisingly, tickets have sold out. Pray for an extension or returns. The Fifth Step runs until July 26
Telegraph
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The Fifth Step: Jack Lowden and Martin Freeman are an irresistible double act
The bold-minded Belfast-born playwright David Ireland has a rare ability to attract top-flight actors for his darkly comic, often taboo-testing work, with unhinged male psyches his forte. In his breakthrough, Cyprus Avenue, Stephen Rea played a Belfast loyalist convinced his baby grand-daughter has the face of Gerry Adams. And late in 2023, Woody Harrelson starred in Ulster American as a Hibernophile Hollywood A-lister aghast to realise he has signed up to play a Protestant Unionist on stage. With The Fifth Step, David Ireland has finally arrived in the West End attended by the kind of dream cast that has fans snapping up tickets with barely a thought for the show's content. After an Edinburgh Festival premiere last year, Slow Horses star Jack Lowden is joined for the London run by Martin Freeman, everyone's favourite Hobbit, for a dive into the step-programme of Alcoholics Anonymous, in which two men – one battling the bottle, the other his (older) sponsor – share the challenge of recovery. I'd love to salute this as the writer's deserved hour of triumph, not least because this piece transmutes his painful experience into the stuff of accessible entertainment. The author attended AA when he was in his twenties and like Lowden's lost soul, who grabs our attention at the start by opening up to Freeman's James about his lack of luck with women, and addiction to porn, he has said he struggled with dating then. Like Luka, too, who surreally claims to have encountered Jesus in the guise of Willem Dafoe on a gym treadmill, he had a religious epiphany that saved him. Yet despite bubbling with hard-won authenticity and again displaying Ireland's flair for nifty, surprising dialogue, the short evening (80 minutes, directed by Finn den Hertog) winds up seeming curiously flat. At Edinburgh some complained about a rushed denouement but the amended, putatively adrenal resolution here feels no less abrupt, while generating a diminished provocative charge – attention is tilted from the damage perpetuated by Luka to the demons of paranoia and jealousy suffered by James. Interesting conversational skirmishes about the saving power of faith, and the surrogate spirituality of AA, take a back-seat to bickering about who said what. At its best, we're shown two fallible blokes striving to trust each other within a frame-work designed to help the vulnerable that still runs the risk of abusive power-play. But as a drama it finally lacks the requisite emotional punch to the guts. The big saving grace is the makeshift double-act itself; both men winningly rising to the challenge of the ringside space's gladiatorial intimacy. Freeman's eyebrows work expressively overtime in polite quizzicality, repressed concern and growing shiftiness. Compared to this middle-aged, uptight, sexlessly married guardian-figure, Lowden captivates with his edgy physicality and a Scottish accent redolent of hard-living; he welds child-like cluelessness with a steely tenacity. To be 'glass half full' about it, their presence and gear-switches are an irresistible theatrical proposition. But the play itself remains a step-change short of a knock-out sensation. Until July 26;
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Martin Freeman & Olga Kurylenko To Star In Thriller ‘Let God Sort It Out' For Newly Launched Cobalt Sky Motion Picture Group & Raised By Wolves — Cannes Market
EXCLUSIVE: Martin Freeman (The Hobbit) and Olga Kurylenko (Quantum Of Solace) are set to star in Let God Sort It Out, marking the first production from newly launched banner Cobalt Sky Motion Picture Group and Raised By Wolves (Dead Man's Wire). Motus Studios is handling international sales in Cannes this week. The film heralds from UK filmmaker Jamie Adams (She Is Love). More from Deadline Cannes Film Festival 2025 in Photos: Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro, 'Sound Of Falling' & 'Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning' Premieres Cannes Film Festival 2025: Read All Of Deadline's Movie Reviews Adriatic Film & TV Awards To Launch In Montenegro In October Pic follows Kyle Roberts (Freeman), a once-revered rock 'n' roll star battling burnout and inner demons. Seeking solace in a remote sanctuary, his pursuit of peace is shattered when a gang of petty criminals infiltrates his retreat, holding him hostage in an escalating standoff. As tensions rise, Kyle must reckon with whether he has the courage to fight back or if he'll succumb to the shadows of his fractured psyche. The project hails from producers Andrea Bucko, whose upcoming credits include Bucking Fastard, Alpha Gang and Dead Man's Wire, Emanuele Moretti (Assassin Club), and Neil Sacker. Moretti's Cobalt Sky Motion Picture Group is launching at Cannes and this is its debut movie. Jordan Claire Robbins and Nini Le Huynh are executive-producing. Adams' résumé includes She Is Love (BFI London 2023), Love Spreads (Tribeca), Wild Honey Pie! (SXSW), and Black Mountain Poets. His films are known for their raw intimacy, actor-driven storytelling, and lyrical tone. He is currently in post-production on his next feature Turn Up the Sun, slated for a 2025 release, and Let's Love, also starring Freeman. Sacker Entertainment Law is handling business affairs, production legal and finance legal for Let God Sort It Out. The Hobbit and Black Panther star Freeman is in post on multiple movies, including fantasy project Momo. Quantum Of Solace and Oblivion star Kurylenko is also in post on multiple projects, including thriller Turbulence. Best of Deadline Where To Watch All The 'Mission: Impossible' Movies: Streamers With Multiple Films In The Franchise Everything We Know About 'My Life With The Walter Boys' Season 2 So Far 'Bridgerton' Season 4: Everything We Know So Far
New Statesman
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
Martin Freeman Q&A: 'My childhood hero was Jesus as portrayed by Robert Powell'
Illustration by Kristian Hammerstad Martin Freeman was born in Aldershot in 1971. He is an award-winning actor performing both on screen and on stage. He is best known for his role of Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit film series which won him the 2013 MTV Movie Award for the Best Hero. What's your earliest memory? My earliest memory is having an asthma attack and having to go the doctor's. I was still making my mum and sister laugh. Now, that's showbiz. Who are your heroes? My childhood hero was Jesus as portrayed by Robert Powell in the TV series Jesus of Nazareth. I don't have a hero now – just people I really admire. Paul McCartney, there's one. What book last changed your thinking? I generally get my thinking changed, or challenged, in all kinds of ways: conversations, interviews, art. What's Left? How the Left Lost Its Way by Nick Cohen was one book that changed my thinking. What political figure do you look up to? Growing up, Tony Benn was very big in our house. I love his diaries. Aside from his skill as a parliamentarian, his humanity really comes through in his writing. In which time and place, other than your own, would you like to live? There are lots of other times that I'd love to poke my nose into. The English Civil War, Victorian London (of course), Judea circa AD 32 to catch a part of an interesting story. What would be your Mastermind specialist subject? My Mastermind subject… tough one. Maybe Stevie Wonder in the Seventies? Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe What TV show could you not live without? I think The Sopranos is truly wonderful, a work of art. Peep Show is my comfort food. Too many others to drone on about now. Who would paint your portrait? I would not hate the pop artist Peter Blake painting me. What's your theme tune? I wish I had a theme tune. If I do, it changes too often to make it a theme. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received? I remember my mum saying to my brother Tim when he was in his early twenties: 'Before you know it you'll be 30. Then you'll be 40. Then you blink and you're 50.' She was basically telling him to get on with it. I definitely know what she meant. I haven't always followed it as well as I might have. What's currently bugging you? What's bugging me? That's hilarious – as if there could be less than 12 things bugging me at any given time. Let's say staff in shops not looking up from their phones. Or people dawdling along London streets, glued to their phones. Or people getting their political information from 20 second clips on their phones… you get the picture. What single thing would make your life better? A 30-hour day would make things easier, for sure. As would the blanket banning of leaf blowers that sound like a supersonic aircraft. When were you happiest? I'm very happy when I'm away with my family. Or frankly, at home with my family, being stupid and laughing. In another life, what job might you have chosen? I would love to have had the talent to be a musician. Are we all doomed? We're not doomed, no. No more than we ever were, I don't think. Martin Freeman will be performing in 'The Fifth Step' at Soho Place from 12 May [See also: David Attenborough at 99: 'Life will almost certainly find a way'] Related
