The Truth About Harry Beck @ London Transport Museum Cubic Theatre

A charming and funny educational presentation. ★★★

Sep 16, 2024

At the London Transport Museum’s Cubic Theatre until 10th November 2024.

Tickets from £20.

Rating: ★★★.

It’s hard to really see The Truth About Harry Beck as theatre. With much of the dialogue directly addressed to the audience and the communication of facts prioritised so significantly over narrative strength, it is much more reminiscent of a whimsical piece of science communication or an in-character historical walking tour.

The framing narrative of this two-hander is that Harry (or Henry) Beck (Simon Snashall), inventor of the modern tube ~~map~~ diagram, and his wife Nora (Ashley Christmas) are in their retirement cottage in the New Forest. There is an audience, unexplained, to which they wish to tell the story of the diagram’s creation. That’s us. From the start we are directly adressed, with both characters telling us portions of the story directly. Most of the story is told through acting within the play, that is, “Nora” impersonating figures in Beck’s life, mostly regionally accented colleagues. We are warned from the off that some is fictionalised, since so little is known about Beck’s personal life.

The narrative is entirely focused on the story of the tube map, with interesting facts about the world interspersed. They’re nice touches, such as being told about inventions whenever an on-stage year passes. The areas of human life that would usually make for engaging theatre- miscarriages, love, marital strife, WW2- are very much told not shown, with stilted dialogue and brief scenes. One does not get the impression the the writer (Andy Burden) wants to tell a human story here.

The chemistry between Snashall and Christmas is that of jovial co-workers, they riff on eachother and tease playfully, but there’s not a hint of romance between them. Both act reasonable well, though Christmas gives a more human and complicated performance than Snashall’s more one-note logical man characterisation.

The stage at the start, and as it remains for much of the show.

Staging is charming and versatile, with some really creative moments including ribbons as train lines. The costuming is good- unremarkable by design, nothing special but sufficiently of a time that it doesn’t break any immersion.

Despite the middling review I would reccomend The Truth About Harry Beck if you, like I, have a real affection for the London Underground. It’s a joyful celebration of the man who designed our favourite diagram and offers some charming, thought provoking meditations on legacy. But don’t go into it expecting theatre- see it as your version of a Jack the Ripper Walking Tour. It’s silly, it’s not high art, but you’ll have a good time and learn something.