★★★

“Ginger is at her best when she is ad- libbing with the crowd or sharing tales from her life”

Ginger Johnson Blows Off! is a one-woman show from Drag Race UK winner Ginger Johnson which explores risk taking, pushing yourself and living up to expectations. Ginger explains that winning Drag Race had been her dream for as long as she could remember and – since her victory – has been trying to find a new goal to occupy her time. She explains that to work out her next step, she needs to be brave, and so decides to become a daredevil to help get the creative juices flowing.

Despite a run time of 70 minutes, the show does drag on (pardon the pun). Ginger attempts three ‘death-defying’ stunts – ingesting Mentos and Coca Cola, playing Russian Roulette with thumb tacks, and being shot out of a cannon (but not really) – and each segment slightly outstays its welcome, the first two becoming particularly repetitive.

Ginger is at her best when she is ad-libbing with the crowd or sharing tales from her life and general musings. She comes alive when an audience member who works at the British Library joins her on stage – making quick and hilarious quips which enchant the audience far more than any of the scripted content. This is no surprise – Ginger was the in-house emcee for performance collective Sink the Pink for many years, perfecting the art of audience engagement.

Ginger also sings two original songs written by cabaret legends Bourgeois and Maurice which break up the show nicely. Moreover, the drag queen takes the time to address more serious issues, specifically TERFs and the recent riots. She takes digs at JK Rowling and Tony Robinson as well as the government’s inaction in these times of crises. Again, Ginger is great here – showing real heart and passion amongst all the silliness.

Ginger – as expected – looks fantastic. She wears a sparkly purple and blue leotard, reminiscent of the outfits of daredevils past. Her hair is a glorious mountain of ginger curls, never falling out of place despite her energetic performance. They are no outfit changes – only a sparkly helmet worn for the grand finale offers any variety to her show look.

Staging is minimal but some of the props are mighty impressive, especially the giant cannon and her hilariously modified Drag Race sceptre – it is now also a vape! The lighting has no real impact – though some aggressive spotlights would have helped the play lean further into the stunt performance it is parodying. Ginger is also joined on stage by her stony-faced ‘Health and Safety Manager’ Jen throughout the show, who helps set up and clear each stunt. Jen nicely contrasts Ginger’s exuberance, and this is regularly played for laughs.

Ginger has no trouble getting the audience on board, even clambering into the dark stalls brandishing a torch on numerous occasions. However, Ginger Johnson Blows Off does not play to the drag queen’s strengths – her natural wit – so never quite hits the heights one might expect from such a seasoned performer.

THE TRUTH ABOUT HARRY BECK at The Cubic Theatre

★★★

“a charming play and a story well-worth telling”

The Truth About Harry Beck – written and directed by Andy Burden – tells the story of draughtsman Henry (Harry) C. Beck who – in 1931 – published a radical new design for the London Underground Map. Inspired by the straight lines and angles of circuit diagrams, Beck reimagined the design not as a geographically accurate map but as a representation, particularly focusing on simplifying the complicated interchanges.

The play clearly spells out Harry’s (Simon Snashall) sad story. Striking a contentious copyright agreement with London Transport in the map’s initial print run, the designer was eventually ostracised and betrayed by the organisation that he so adored after three decades of free labour. Harry died in 1974, never receiving the credit he deserved for his bold reimagination of the tube system, putting the traveller’s comprehension at the core of the design. The production also explores the impact that Harry’s predicament had on his doting wife Nora (Ashley Christmas), who struggles to balance supporting her ailing mother with her husband’s obsessive work.

It wasn’t until 2001 that Beck finally got his rightful credit line on Underground maps, with no small thanks to his friend Ken Garland, who lent the show’s writer reams of letters between Harry and London Transport to inform the play’s script and some of which are read out on stage.

Christmas and Snashall play a very sweet Nora and Harry. They show particular chemistry in the play’s more sombre moments such as when Harry finally decides to give up his legal battle and retire to the New Forest with his wife.

Nora and Harry address the audience throughout the performance, inviting us into their home over tea and biscuits. There is one scene of direct audience participation which the cast ad lib well. Nora and Harry create a 3D representation of the latter’s early map design using coloured ribbon and ask the audience to shout out stations with key intersections. Another interesting touch is Nora declaring important inventions each year to demonstrate both time passing and to pay homage to the many revolutionary inventors who few will know the names of today.

Christmas does a particularly great job of cycling between various characters such as Harry’s boss and London Transport ex-CEO Frank Pick. At times, the transitions can be jarring but it is always clear when we have moved to a new scene and different characterisations.

The set (Sue Condie) places our characters in the Becks’ home. To the left, Harry’s workshop, piled with papers and tools and on the right a small living room which Nora typically occupies. Fake walls line the back of the stage and signs are hung up to indicate different settings such as a tube station or a ticket office.

However, the play’s ending does leave a little to be desired. Though the audience knows that Beck eventually gets the recognition he craved, the show would have benefitted with some further information about this journey. Harry died nearly thirty years before his credit was included on Underground maps and it would have been interesting to have this time briefly discussed.

In addition, a projector is used at the end of the play to showcase to show Harry’s glorious design across the back wall – it would have been great if the audience could see different images of the tube map to see its evolution, or examples of metro maps from across the world that have been based on Harry’s design principles. At times, the cast hold props such as a pocket map of Harry’s first design – a larger projection of this would have been well received. Or when Harry sees a tube map designed by rival Harold F. Hutchinson – the audience never sees this, but rather has it described.

The Truth About Harry Beck is a charming play and a story well-worth telling. Some more information about Harry’s road to recognition and greater use of tech and display to show the visual brilliance of his design would add further poignancy to this valuable tale of incredible talent almost lost to history.

GINGER JOHNSON BLOWS OFF! at the Soho Theatre

★★★

“Ginger is at her best when she is ad- libbing with the crowd or sharing tales from her life”

GINGER JOHNSON BLOWS OFF! at the Soho Theatre

Reviewed on 25th September 2024

by Flora Doble

Photography by Aimee McGhee

Previously reviewed at this venue:

GINGER JOHNSON

GINGER JOHNSON

THE TRUTH ABOUT HARRY BECK at The Cubic Theatre

★★★

“a charming play and a story well-worth telling”

THE TRUTH ABOUT HARRY BECK at The Cubic Theatre

Reviewed on 18th September 2024

by Flora Doble

Photography by Mark Douet

More of Flora’s reviews:

THE TRUTH ABOUT HARRY BECK

THE TRUTH ABOUT HARRY BECK