If there’s one thing that has united London over the past 160 years or so, it isn’t fooball, the Royal Family or politics or anything like that – it’s the oldest running underground train system on the world. Much like cinema and the theatre, the tube system conjures up a myriad of different associations and experiences, where people of every walk of life rub shoulders together.
Written by Tom Woffenden and Hamish Clayton, Cockfosters focuses on two ‘strangers’ returning from abroad, who are both catching the Piccadilly line train home from Heathrow Airport.
Firstly, there is Tori/Victoria (Beth Lilly), who has returned from Mexico (her time split between yoga and Jägers!). We also meet James (Saul Boyer), whose intended romantic trip to Venice ended disastrously. From their initial conversation, the couple’s chemistry is evident, but a few awkward exchanges impede the flow of conversation.
Thank goodness then for the constant flow of characters on the tube who provide opportunities to naturally talk. These people all represent the different sort of characters one encounters, if you stay on the tube long enough – a tube ‘bingo card’ if you will.
While Lily and Boyer play the principal characters for the entirety of the show, the ‘revolving door’ ensemble propel the story forward with a constant stream of amusing characters and incidents. It has to be said that no two ‘funny incidents’ are the same, allowing for different sorts of comedy within a short space of time.
As James’s friend Richard, Kit Lloyd has a cheeky, irreverent turn of phrase that evokes Rimmer in Red Dwarf. Many of the other characters he plays make use of his knack for physical humour. As a counterpoint to the comical, but slightly ‘exaggerated’ characters Lloyd plays, Charlie Keable’s array of characters dial the absurdist levels up to 11. Reminiscent of Monty Python, Keable’s characters – whether they are the ticket inspector, ‘angry Nigel’ or a tourist – often steal the show.
The characters in the play don’t just talk to each other – they at times ‘break the fourth wall’ and interact with the audience, such as in the quiz segment of the show ‘hosted’ by Natasha Vasandani. She also plays an assortment of characters, including the memorable ‘woman who has been offered a seat’. Likewise, Amy Bianchi appears in the quiz segment of the show, as well as playing the more ‘grounded’ characters, while Ed Bowles gets to shine during the musical numbers.
I dare say there are many more things that Cockfosters could include that mirror the experiences of tube users. But from what it does cover, it shows a broad range of events that people will recognise. And if certain jokes or moments of intended humour don’t land as successfully as others, it’s not long before something else does.
© Michael Davis 2024
Cockfosters runs at the Turbine Theatre until 20th January.
Breaking The Fourth Wall 