CANOE

Fatherhood. A fatal canoe accident. ‘Who are we now we don’t have kids?’

A review by Tanya Howard

Canoe tells the story of two parents, Tom and David, who have lost two of their adopted children, Kevin and Samantha, in a tragic canoeing accident. A one man show, written and performed by Matthew Roberts, the show centres around the way both parents process and struggle to deal with their grief, whilst taking on the weight of social media backlash and religious homophobia through spoken word, rhymes and story books.

Along with both the parents Matthew also plays the part of their first adopted son Andrew, who has driven down for the funeral with his new baby. Matthew is a very passionate actor and portrays the emotion of all the characters involved very well but I did get a little lost at points with the switching of characters, emotions and plot threads. The story has such a powerful message about how we cope with grief, how society treats people in the wake of a tragedy and the pitfalls that gay people still have to face that I would have loved to see it performed with a full cast.

The play really digs deep into how we express emotion in different situations and how people react differently to the same situation. On one hand we have a parent who is struggling to cope with the loss and another parent who wants to fall apart but needs to hold it together for the both of them. We see a partner being pushed away when really all they want is for the other to wrap their arms around them but there’s just too many memories to let them in.

Not only does the play explore the sadness of grief, we also see the anger behind the scenes, the moment where they wish they’d never had kids and given up their time that was taken by them, but in a moment where your heart feels like it’s been ripped out of your chest can you truly say that’s how you feel or are you just so sad that it’s released as anger.

We hear about the onslaught of abuse sent across social media about how two gay men should have never been allowed to start a family and that the kids are better off dead than growing up with two dads. Being a part of the social media generation, this didn’t even surprise me because we see every day trolls online sending abuse and hateful comments to people because they are behind a computer screen and suddenly feel tough and like they can say anything without backlash. Would they say that to their face, would they still think that if they hadn’t seen someone else write something similar first, social media has a lot to answer for in the way it has brought out these keyboard warriors who’s only delight in line is to see others suffer.

Despite all the sadness and hatred, I felt that written between the lines of this play is the message that everyone deserves to be and is worthy of love. From the boy who lived in care homes that was taking in by a loving couple, what does it matter the parent’s gender if they are going to take care of, protect and love that child to no end, to the couple who have lost their children and deserve support and privacy during such a hard time. Matthew gave an incredible performance from a demanding script, but I would have loved to have had a larger cast just to make sure the messages within truly resonated through the audience. I think this show is really going to go places!