Theatre review: Cockfosters

Taking its title from the station tourists mistakenly think has the smuttiest-sounding name on the Tube (only because they don't know how Londoners pronounce "Hainault,") Hamish Clayton and Tom Woffenden's Cockfosters is a short, affable and affectionate comedy about the London Underground. Technically the genre is romantic comedy, as it follows a journey on the entire Piccadilly Line route from Heathrow Airport to Cockfosters as Tori (Beth Lilly) returns from a relaxing holiday to Mexico and James (Sam Rees-Baylis) tops off a much more disastrous trip to Venice with the airline losing his luggage. But while the journey serves as an extended meet-cute it's really a framework for a series of comic sketches in which they encounter the various characters and situations that regular commuters will recognise - and generally dread.

Jimmy Bryant, Liam Horrigan, Natasha Vasandani and Emily Waters are the ensemble taking on the collection of eccentrics, irritants and outright menaces the pair encounter, beginning with the man who takes his shoes and socks off to make himself comfortable (before settling down to watch YouTube videos without headphones.)

There's also confused American tourists, chatty pensioners, Waters' pushy busker singing songs (by Woffenden) about stations, invading hordes of football fans and a hen party. Sketches that veer more into the surreal include a game show asking the audience about Tube trivia, a rap battle over whether North or South London is best, and a number of flashbacks to the history of the world's first underground railway - one thing that's quite odd about the show is how it sometimes feels like a Sesame Street sketch, with the dialogue turning into interesting facts and figures about the network.

That's all part of the genuine affection the show has for the Underground, which leaves the evening very much in the realms of gentle comedy rather than anything side-splitting, although there are some laugh-out-loud moments: It probably says more about my age than anything else that my favourite moment was Vasandani as a woman who gets offered a seat for the first time and has a resulting midlife crisis.

The show does even eventually address the current ear-splitting noise levels on the trains - never mind the dream sequences, the real fantasy element is the central couple being able to have this conversation in the first place. And there's an endearing Easter Egg in the show's credits as, true to the spirit of everyone mucking in for Dame Theatre, recent Olivier winner Jethro Compton is credited as the production's carpenter. No idea why there's a gag about Rees-Baylis looking like Stephen Mangan though, when he clearly looks more like Tamsin Greig with stubble.

Cockfosters by Tom Woffenden and Hamish Clayton is booking until the 17th of May at Southwark Playhouse Borough's Large Theatre.

Running time: 1 hour 15 minutes straight through.

Photo credit: Marshall Stay.