Ups and Downs

Case worker John is a diligent and passionate man. Taking a seemingly lost cause—a teenage prostitute called Astrid—under his wing, he tries to help give his charges a new start in life and, in the process, find personal redemption himself.

Just to complicate matters, Astrid is dead, as are all John’s cases. And John himself.

Brought to Edinburgh by the London-based KDC theatre company, Ups and Downs is based in the ephemeral twilight zone between life and death, a Purgatory in which souls awaiting passage to the afterlife are judged upon the deeds and trespasses in their lives. Rather cleverly, KDC’s Purgatory takes the form of the most bleak, soulless and desolate place imaginable: a hospital waiting room. Here, Ups and Downs follows five newly-deads as they await their preliminary judgement by the Holy Ghost, a character who represents the first obstacle on the road to heaven. Whether she decides to send these souls for referral to God himself or straight to hell depends upon the strength of John’s advocacy.

With its petty-bureaucratic set-up, KDC have created potentially a very interesting device through which to explore the rigidity of Christian doctrine and the relativity of contemporary morality. Unfortunately, though, the rather unadventurous writing allows this opportunity to slip. While there are flashes of thoughtfulness, these are few and far between. Too often Ups and Downs is little more than a supernatural office drama, one that is not quite humorous nor interesting enough to fully engage the audience. In the end, it feels like an opportunity lost.