Writers: Tom Woffenden and Hamish Clayton
Director: Hamish Clayton
Thankfully the tube strike was called off allowing more people to enjoy this broad comedy extolling the joys – and the annoyances – of the London Underground. Finding a temporary home in the Turbine Theatre just outside Battersea Power Station Station, one of London’s newest and most oddly named stations, Cockfosters is a sharp, funny look at tube-life.
Although Tom Woffenden and Hamish Clayton’s play has a story, Cockfosters runs more like a revue, with skits – be they musical numbers about busking or parodies of American tourists – coming fast and furious. Two strangers, Tori and James, embark on the Piccadilly Line at Heathrow to begin their long journey to the opposite terminus given in the play’s title.
James has come from Venice. The trip was meant to be a honeymoon, but he spent the holiday alone. Tori is returning from Mexico where her yoga retreat transformed into nightly raves. James travels light as the airport has lost his suitcase while Tori is burdened with luggage. They begin talking as the train pulls out of Heathrow and they don’t stop talking until they arrive, 70 minutes, later at Cockfosters.
On their journey, they meet old friends, exes, football fans and beggars. They partake in tube-related quizzes (who knew that the Victoria Line was almost called the Viking Line?) and mock history lessons about the Metropolitan Line. It’s all very humourous, but it’s not profound. Angel Station is definitely deeper.
Saul Boyer is excellent as James, the dumped fiancé, bringing exasperation and hopefulness in equal measures while Beth Lilly gives Tori, the Londoner with trains in her veins, a pleasing carefreeness. They are joined on stage by five other actors who play all of the other passengers they meet as they speed through central London and beyond. All work tirelessly, never missing a beat in the skits that need precise comic timing.
However, despite the laughs – and there are plenty of them – the sketches become too similar, and you can’t help wishing that the love-struck couple would reach their destination a little sooner or that their story was more urgent and insightful. Fortunately, they race through most of East London.
Despite the thinness of the narrative, you never feel as if you are stuck on the tube like those poor passengers who had to endure hours on the Elizabeth Line in December, but in Cockfosters, the view out the windows never changes.
Runs until 20 January 2024
