Jack Lowden of Slow Horses: “I feel more at home on stage than I do in life” | stage

Slow Horses star Jack Lowden said it was a “relief” to return to the stage in the intense role of an alcoholic in West End hit The Fifth Step.

Lowden first starred in David Ireland’s Two-Handed when it premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2024, and reprized his character in London earlier this year, this time opposite Martin Freeman. “It’s always a relief to be on stage,” Lowden said. “I don’t feel comfortable at all in front of the camera.” He continued: “When I’m on stage, I immediately feel at home. A lot of actors say that, which can sound silly sometimes, but I honestly mean it. I feel more at home on stage than I do in life and I don’t know why at all.”

Lodden’s films included Mary, Queen of Scots (2018) with Saoirse Ronan, whom he later married, and Benediction (2021), as the war poet Siegfried Sassoon. He is best known on television for appearing alongside Gary Oldman in Slow Horses, based on the spy novel by Mick Herron. Lowden was speaking alongside Ireland and director Finn den Hertog at the NT Live Edinburgh screening of The Fifth Step, which was filmed at @sohoplace in London. The film will be released in cinemas on November 27.

“It was very surreal to watch that – it was the first time I had seen something of myself on stage,” Lowden said in the discussion. Reflecting on his on-stage performance, he joked: “I can only apologize because I don’t really have a butt!” The Fifth Step was “the most actor-friendly play I have ever done…or seen,” continued Lowden, who suggested this was because its playwright and director served as actors themselves.

In his early twenties, Lowden starred in the National Black Watch Theater in Scotland. His theatrical career included versions of Chariots of Fire and Ghosts (opposite Lesley Manville) and Elektra (with Kristin Scott Thomas). The Fifth Step was his first play since Measure for Measure at the Donmar Warehouse in 2018, directed by Josie Rourke (who also directed the film Mary, Queen of Scots).

Lowden said that when he’s involved in a play, “I don’t really care what it’s more or less about…I just care about the character and whether the character is worth playing.” He added that The Fifth Step, co-produced by the National Theater of Scotland, was “a play written for two actors to go crazy and push each other every night.”

His character in Step Five is Luca, a new member of Alcoholics Anonymous who asks the elder James (Martin Freeman) to be his sponsor. The drama unfolds on the edge of confessional theater in AA’s 12-step program, where Luca is expected to acknowledge the damage his addiction has done to himself and others.

Acknowledging the serious issues raised by black comedy, Lowden said: “There’s no sense in doing it [these issues] In a play that wasn’t entertaining in the first place. No one should sit in the dark for an hour and 15 minutes and never laugh. I think this robs people of their money.