{"id":128178,"date":"2025-11-10T17:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T17:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/128178\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T17:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T17:35:08","slug":"slow-horses-jack-lowden-i-feel-more-at-home-on-stage-than-i-do-in-life-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/128178\/","title":{"rendered":"Slow Horses\u2019 Jack Lowden: \u2018I feel more at home on stage than I do in life\u2019 | Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Slow Horses star Jack Lowden<\/a> has said it was a \u201crelief\u201d to return to the stage in the intense role of an alcoholic in the West End hit The Fifth Step.<\/p>\n

Lowden first starred in David Ireland\u2019s two-hander when it premiered<\/a> at the Edinburgh international festival in 2024 and he reprised his character in London earlier this year, this time opposite Martin Freeman. \u201cIt\u2019s always a relief to be on stage,\u201d said Lowden. \u201cI don\u2019t really feel comfortable at all on camera.\u201d He continued: \u201cWhenever I get to be on stage, I instantly feel at home. A lot of actors do say that, which can sound like shite sometimes, but I genuinely do mean it. I feel more at home on stage than I do in life and I don\u2019t know why that is at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lowden\u2019s films have included Mary Queen of Scots (2018) with Saoirse Ronan, whom he later married, and Benediction (2021), as the war poet Siegfried Sassoon. On TV, he is best known for appearing alongside Gary Oldman in Slow Horses, based on Mick Herron\u2019s spy fiction. Lowden was speaking alongside Ireland and director Finn den Hertog at an Edinburgh screening of the NT Live capture of The Fifth Step, which was filmed at @sohoplace in London. The film is released in cinemas on 27 November<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching that was very strange \u2013 that\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve ever seen anything of myself on stage,\u201d said Lowden in the discussion. Reflecting on seeing his stage performance, he joked: \u201cI can only apologise for not really having an arse!\u201d The Fifth Step was \u201cthe most actor-friendly play I\u2019ve ever done \u2026 or seen,\u201d continued Lowden, who suggested that was because both its playwright and director have worked as actors themselves.<\/p>\n

Lesley Manville and Jack Lowden in Ghosts at Trafalgar Studios, London, in 2014. Photograph: Tristram Kenton\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

In his early 20s, Lowden starred in the National Theatre of Scotland\u2019s Black Watch. His stage career has included a version of Chariots of Fire<\/a>, Ghosts<\/a> (opposite Lesley Manville) and Electra (with Kristin Scott Thomas<\/a>). The Fifth Step was his first play since Measure for Measure<\/a> at the Donmar Warehouse in 2018, staged by Josie Rourke (who also directed the film Mary Queen of Scots).<\/p>\n

Lowden said that when he takes on a play, \u201cI don\u2019t really care what the thing\u2019s about to a certain extent \u2026 I just care about the character and if the character\u2019s worth playing\u201d. The Fifth Step, co-produced by the National Theatre of Scotland<\/a>, was \u201ca play written for two actors to sort of go mad and really push each other every single night\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n

His character in The Fifth Step is Luka, who is new to Alcoholics Anonymous and asks the older James (Martin Freeman) to be his sponsor. The drama unfolds on the verge of the confessional stage<\/a> in AA\u2019s 12-step programme, with Luka expected to acknowledge the harm his addiction has done to himself and others.<\/p>\n

Recognising the serious issues raised by the dark comedy, Lowden said: \u201cThere\u2019s no point in doing [these issues] in a play unless it is, first and foremost, entertaining. No one should sit in the dark for an hour and 15 minutes and never laugh. I think that\u2019s robbing people of their money.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Slow Horses star Jack Lowden has said it was a \u201crelief\u201d to return to the stage in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-128178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}