Cockfosters - Southwark Playhouse - Review

The Tube, the rat run, the pain in the backside, call it what you will but the London Underground is perhaps one of the greatest inventions of the modern age, connecting the city and inspiring many similar infrastructures around the world. Millions upon millions use it, and whilst many of us may not look up from our phones and books to truly take in what is happening around us as we travel under London, Cockfosters, back for another sell out run, explores it in great and hilarious detail making the Piccadilly line the somewhat unlikely setting for a love story, both between two young travellers and London and its underground world itself.

Tori (Beth Lilly) and James (Sam Rees-Baylis) board the Piccadilly line at Heathrow to ride the line all the way to Cockfosters, and along the way they meet a plethora of hilarious characters from those annoying man spreaders and tourists, to buskers, football fans and party goers in what can be described as both a wickedly clever and witty romantic comedy and a love letter to the tube itself. Tori has grown up being told that she has ‘trains in her veins’ by her tube map designing grandfather and after a yoga retreat holiday failed to help her to find herself, she is determined to discover the truth. James, on the other hand, is simply determined to get home in one piece. His holiday was a disaster, his partner left him, his phone is broken and the airline lost his suitcase. But is there a light at the end of tube tunnel in the form of the cheeky, excitable Tori?

Lilly and Rees-Baylis have a natural and wonderful chemistry, bouncing off each other’s energy and welcoming the audience in on their jokes. The growing relationship between the pair is charming and believable as they both try to find ways to keep the conversation going throughout their long tube journey, from Tori’s seemingly endless tube knowledge to James’ awkward question asking, they make each other laugh and share their infectious happiness with the delighted audience.

The jokes come thick and fast, speaking both to the London residents who are daily commuters to the tourists who jump and out of the city whenever they please as we rattle along at a rapid pace. Whilst tube trains themselves have 2 speed settings, full speed and throw you off your feet stop, Cockfosters is go, go, go from ready to depart to where this train terminates, laugh a minute and rapid costume change a second.

Charlie Keeble, Emily Waters, Princess Donnough and Liam Horrigan play countless roles throughout as between the four of them they fill the tube carriage to the brim with comical larger than life characters that illustrate everyone that you could possibly meet on the London Underground. Keeble plays Richard, the somewhat friend of Sam, who considers himself the big man in town, alongside also playing a posh traveller, a busker and a loudmouth football fan to name but a few. Princess Donnough switches quickly between someone offered a seat for the first time to a gameshow host asking strange questions about the tube whilst Emily Waters jumps from busker Tubey Ruby to a young mother who believes her side of London is the best, to musical theatre advertisers and beyond.

Liam Horrigan earns perhaps some of the largest laughs, some before the show even begins as he guides people into the performance space as a TFL worker, dons a giant top hat to play a Victorian railroad manager, mourns the loss of paper tickets as an enthusiastic inspector and joins in with an hilarious hen do scene.

There is something for everything in this production, characters that you can see yourself in, from the travellers to Tori and James themselves, the pair simply looking for someone to ride to the end of the line of life with, and it will all have you laughing and smiling throughout. You will leave the theatre with a spring in your step, warmed by the love story and perhaps even a little bit in love with the world of the London underground yourself.