'Boat Horse' play evoked working life on England's canals

Hidden away at the Girl Guides’ HQ on Lawn Vista, the low-key two-hander was written and performed by husband-and-wife duo Phil Underwood and Denise Dryburgh (aka folk duo DryWood). Featuring real canal stories and original songs and poetry by Phil, with additional traditional songs and tunes, the show explored the history of “the cut” (the canal) from the 18th century to the early 1960s.

Resplendent in period canal dress, boatman John Swift (Phil) and his wife Molly (Denise) explained how they were a “Number One” (owners of their own horse-drawn boat) who plied for cargo on the English canals. They recounted the true stories they’d come across, the changes that they’d seen over their years on the cut, and how rail and road haulage was changing their lives forever as the canals gradually declined.

The songs – many of them with singalong choruses – explored the hard life on the cut (“Canals of Old England”), John’s work as a boat painter (decorating boats with traditional canal artwork), how the “navvies” (navigators) blasted and hand-dug the English canals, and how new-fangled transportation was taking over (“The Oxford and ‘Ampton Railway”).

We also learnt about murder on the cut, gongoozlers (land-lubbers who walk along the canals, looking at boats), the effects of world wars, the importance of horses for towing narrow boats, the rise of diesel engines to power the boats and how traditional life on the cut was slowly fading.

It was a charming production that I greatly enjoyed; Phil and Denise Underwood were excellent in their respective roles as boatman and boatman’s wife, while Phil also excelled at the judge and – in hobby-horse guise – as the Swift’s boat horse. With clever use of minimal props and appropriate traditional music, they recreated the tough canal life with aplomb and threw in some comedic moments for good measure. So, if “Boat Horse” should clip-clop its way along the cut again, make sure you catch it.