For anyone who has fond memories of time on a canal boat, not actually being a bargee but borrowing one for a holiday, this show is a must, a celebration of the canals and those who live on them.  Grit of Life is narrated by John Knowles, author and director, with Rory McLeod as song writer, on an 84 year old Canal Boat. The Widgeon Theatre Boat can tour its play with music to navigable water ways and you can sit the other side of the towpath. 

A five piece band of actor, singer, musicians entertain us with the story of the canals and travelling with a difference.  The Widgeon was once used to move grit to where it was needed for building.  John describes the canals as the pumping arteries of industry and capitalism, bargees hauling coal, the physical hard work of locking to raise and lower the narrow boat through flights. 

Maisy Beth Crunden on banjo, Kristin Duffy on violin, Patrick McHugh on guitar and mandolin, and Hannah Harris on accordion sing about the 92 locks on the Cheshire Ring.  The music is folk inspired, often with bluesy rock as they sing “I’ve a weakness for water, water is my strength”.  John describes what all of us who have woken early morning on a canal boat, moored in the middle of nowhere have experienced, the mist rising above the water and the only companions a few ducks sharing this very special moment. 

We meet the residents of the towpath, the lycra clad jogger, the cyclist and the angler, each part being taken by a member of the cast, acting out the narrative.  Kristin brings us down to earth with the reminder that “canal living is a reality, not a dream” as her character explains she has to move her boat every two weeks and the difficulties of getting a land based job.