The Upwards Journey of a Champagne Bubble
★★★★★
Five Star Pick
★★★★★ Five Star Pick
I gave an enthusiastic five stars to this company in 2023 for the equally but deliciously verbosely titled All is Pink in West Berkshire County, so was excited to see what disturbing delights they were bringing to Fringe 2026. It’s safe to say I was not disappointed.
While definitely dipping into similar thematic and stylistic waters as All is Pink, this is by no means a retread, more something that feels like a logical progression, pushing the envelope a little further while exploring similar territory around class, sexuality and the blackest of humour. Writer/Director Harry Daisley’s expertly and densely written script takes gloriously deranged left turns every time you begin to feel settled, and saying almost anything about it feels like a spoiler. However, highlights that don’t give too much away include a love letter beginning with the faintest of praise, ‘you are such a presence in my life’; the horror of drinking tap water described as imbibing the DNA of poverty; and perhaps the worst romantic Polaroid photo ever taken.
Elegantly, intelligently and inventively written, it comments on ideas of state control, bodily autonomy and societal expectation. But where even well-loved works like The Handmaid’s Tale or Children of Men make their metaphors relatively explicit, Upwards Journey is written to be unpicked, unpacked and unravelled, and can be about many things to many people. Like a great song, it allows the audience space to draw their own conclusions. All of this makes it sound terribly serious, and at its heart it is, but make no mistake, it’s also righteously good fun and hilarious throughout.
The cast are all fantastic, giving the kind of full-throttle, body-and-soul performances that must be absolutely exhausting night after night. Matthew Dangerfield in particular is a force of nature as Lance, as grotesquely bourgeois and hilariously libidinous as he is able to deliver the darker, subtler and more empathetic moments of the script.
I can’t recommend this enough. It’s not for the easily offended, perhaps, but should probably be compulsory viewing regardless.
★★★★★
