Review: Transport Explorers: A Live Show, London Transport Museum

Aimed at 5+ family audiences and presented in the London Transport Museum’s charming 80-seater basement theatre space, The Cubic, Transport Explorers: A Live Show is part of the Transported by Culture initiative launched in 2024.

We meet two trainee engineers, Jesse (Hattie Manton) and Kai (James Georgiou), who are aiming to earn their Planner, Fixer, and Dreamer badges to become fully qualified engineers. To do so, they must tackle a series of transport challenges from London’s past, present, and future. This is a whistle-stop adventure lasting 60 minutes, written by Rachel Barnett-Jones, where the audience is invited to help our intrepid duo with various experiments.

It sounds good in theory, but such is the pace and bombardment of facts, figures, and names, that it becomes difficult to follow. The audience is often left reeling, confused about what is actually going on. While the physical audience involvement is playful and, to a certain degree, entertaining, it’s no substitute for a story with heart, character, and depth. The actors talk at the audience rather than inviting them into a genuine conversation about the facts being shared. Throwing in a few ‘poo jokes’ may stir up some laughter, but to what end? As a result, Jesse and Kai remain little more than two-dimensional characters.

This piece feels like a loud, CBeebies-style, cardboard cut-out, brightly coloured, dungaree-wearing, cap-on-the-side, cheeky-chappie and girl sidekick, game-show-format style of theatre. If that’s your thing, this show might work for you. But not for me — sorry.

There are plenty of theatre pieces that can deliver interesting facts, support the KS2 STEM curriculum with flair, and offer young audience members inspiring female role models. This show doesn’t. Why is Kai cracking jokes and bouncing around the stage, reinforcing the tired ‘silly, daft boy at the back of the class’ stereotype? Why isn’t Jesse portrayed as an inspiring female engineer of the future — someone genuinely engaged and excited by the rich resources of the Transport Museum?

The piece does improve in the third section, when it looks to the future and introduces the initiatives TfL is undertaking to create a greener, more sustainable transport system. Apparently, London has the largest fleet of electric buses in Europe — who would have thought? We explore carbon emissions, hydrogen buses, clean fuels, and how rainwater overspill on roads can be redirected to water green spaces. There’s even a compelling section on friction, illustrated with a thermal heat camera. I’d imagine the Mayor of London would be very pleased with the positive messaging around all the green initiatives being showcased. But is this theatrical?

The show ends with a rather blunt call to action: go to the café and buy a ticket to enter the museum itself, where you can see the things mentioned in the play. But haven’t the audience already paid £15/£12 to see the show?

One final quibble: while waiting for the performance to start, we were serenaded over the sound system by ABBA’s Waterloo, Petula Clark’s Downtown, and the Pet Shop Boys’ West End Girls. What do these tracks have to do with the messaging of the piece? A thoughtful sound designer could have created a far more integrated and evocative soundscape, drawing on the textures and sonic treasures of the museum’s archive — the very foundation of what could have been a much more meaningful theatre experience.

A Theatre Museum and Dan Colman Creative production
Written by: Rachel Barnett-Jones
Directed by: Nicola Shepherd
Design by: Damien Stanton
Stage management: James Theobold
Production management: Dave Muir
Production co-ordinator: Bethany Cooper
For Dan Colman Creative: Dan Colman (Producer) and Lauren Buckley (General Manager)

Transport Explorers: A Live Show will return throughout the school holidays in July and August with some further dates in October and December 2025.