Cockfosters is a hilarious journey on the Piccadilly Line that you won’t want to miss. My theatre-loving friends and I love a fun show during the festive season, and this production at Southwark Playhouse fitted the bill perfectly.
Written by Tom Woffenden and Hamish Clayton, Cockfosters follows James and Tori as they travel the 24 stops from Heathrow to Cockfosters on the Piccadilly Line. But the fun starts before you even go into the auditorium. Announcements are made on megaphones about minding the doors and the train being about to depart. The show programme is called Retro and looks suspiciously like the free newspaper every Londoner is familiar with.
Because Cockfosters is a show for Londoners, or anyone who has spent time commuting on its iconic Tube. If you have, the jokes are very relatable and laugh-out-loud funny. It also looks familiar as the set is a very authentic tube carriage.
Tori (Beth Lilly) and James (Sam Rees-Baylis) are strangers who board the train at Heathrow and, over the next hour and 10 minutes, meet an assortment of people. The rest of the cast come in and out of the train doors playing commuters, tourists, drunks, buskers and even a hen party.
Along the way to Cockfosters, the couple start to chat, and we learn that Tori has ‘trains in her veins’. Her family history means she knows a lot about the history of the London Underground. So we hear about Harry Beck, the designer of the tube map, and why the Tube went under rather than across London in the first place.
Some of the interactions are funnier than others, but there aren’t any real duds. I particularly liked Ruby Tuby, who gets on and sings a song made up from every single station name. And having worked in marketing, the fun poked at vitamin ads resonated. There is also every type of passenger that you’re likely to have encountered on the Tube. The one who doesn’t put his headphones in, the one who wants to chat when you really don’t, and the sneezer you want to move away from, but there are no spare seats.
The Cockfosters audience also gets to join in at one stage with a quiz. Do you know which station contains all of the vowels of the alphabet? I certainly didn’t! So the whole experience is a laugh-a-minute journey that is definitely a lot more fun than any you’ll make on the real Tube. It’s not the first time Cockfosters has arrived at Southwark Playhouse, but this run is a brilliant opportunity to have some festive fun.
Cockfosters is playing at Southwark Playhouse until 3 January 2026. For more reviews of theatre, art, comedy and music, check the Arts section of my blog.