Cockfosters
Southwark Playhouse, London
★★★

NAMING your show about the London Underground after one of its most naughtily christened stations is a sure-fire clue that a no-holds-barred send-up of the world’s oldest underground railway awaits.

Tom Woffenden and Hamish Clayton’s Cockfosters delivers wholeheartedly on its promise to try and squeeze every laugh possible out of an excursion down the Piccadilly Line with strangers James (Sam Rees-Baylis) and Tori (Beth Lilly).

Both returning to Heathrow from very different escapades — yoga and Jager in Mexico for her and heartbreak in Venice for him — they find common ground amid the madness of the Tube.

A multi-rolling cast are at work from the moment you enter the building with standout Liam Horrigan making rib-tickling announcements as a TfL staffer in the corridor of the theatre. It’s the start of an hour crammed with unashamedly silly sketches which attempt to take down almost every aspect of an underground journey and the city that lies above, from Arsenal fans to US tourists via hen do’s and Shakespeare.

Attempts at more historical exploration, like an appearance from the Tube’s “godfather” Charles Pearson, are packed with fun facts but lack dramatic intrigue. In contrast, a few entertaining musical numbers from the other exceptional multi-roller, Emily Waters, really pick up the pace.

Aside from a quick “Tube quiz” an odd lack of audience interaction, in a show that cries out for it, sees the laughter gradually subside with each vignette as the stop-by-stop formula becomes clear. As we reach the end of the line, the brittleness of the central story is left exposed with two characters who have drifted into the background among the antics.

On the way home it was difficult not to be struck by the fact that the largely white, middle-class London reflected here on stage did not reflect the multicultural reality which makes the capital so special. All in all, however, Cockfosters is a thoroughly amusing homage to the experience of a certain type of Londoner.

Runs until May 17. Box office: (020) 7407-0234, southwarkplayhouse.co.uk.