OH! I MISS THE WAR Will Make Its Toronto Debut at the 2025 Toronto Fringe Festival

What happens when the past and present of queer experience collide in one body, one voice, and one unforgettable performance? In Oh! I Miss the War, award-winning actor, co-playwright, and creator David John Phillips brings to life two generations of queer men in a riveting solo performance that spans five decades and two continents.

Developed and co-written with fellow playwright Matthew Baldwin, the show is a raw, lyrical exploration of desire, memory, and identity, delivered with precision, vulnerability, and theatrical brilliance by Phillips himself. Oh! I Miss the War will make its Toronto debut at the 2025 Toronto Fringe Festival running from July 2nd – July 13th at Native Earth's Aki Studio (585 Dundas St E). The show is presented by djp productions as part of the 2025 Toronto Fringe Festival written by Matthew Baldwin and David John Phillips directed by Anthony Misiano starring David John Phillips.

 

Set in 1967 London and 2022 Toronto, Oh! I Miss the War features two monologues delivered by aging queer men in two very different, but spiritually connected, queer spaces. In London, Jack, a tailor to the chorus boys of the West End, watches the decriminalization of homosexuality unfold around him. As a former rentboy, he reflects on the outlaw joy and danger of queer love in hiding and wonders what's lost in the era of visibility.

 

In present-day Toronto, Matt, a service bottom with failing knees, navigates the evolving queer landscape of apps, puppies, and pronoun fluency. Grappling with the disconnect between generations, he claims his space as an elder and leans into the possibilities of intergenerational queer intimacy and political legacy.

 

Together, these stories form a tapestry of queer experience across a century, touching on hankie codes, Polari, tea rooms, back rooms, faeries, drag, kink, love, and grief, all told with sharp wit, theatrical finesse, and emotional depth.

 

“When I saw the collection of monologues Queers it at The National Theatre bookstore in London, of course I had to buy it.” said David John Phillips. “And when I read Matthew Baldwin's monologue, I Miss the War, I fell in love, and had to perform it, which I did at the Glad Day Bookshop in 2023. That was so rich, so evocative, and so much fun that I knew I had to write something to extend and respond to it. So was the monolog Oh! born. At first, I performed both monologs back to back. But then Tony Misiano, a wonderful director, suggested that we interleave them, and let them really speak to and build upon each other. This structure works brilliantly, to explore the richness of queer memory, the contradictions, the intimacy, the humour, the survival. Performing this show feels like sitting at the intersection of grief and joy and offering that to the audience as an invitation to remember, reflect, accept, and feel seen.”

 

Following acclaimed runs in Vancouver and Dublin, Oh! I Miss the War arrives in Toronto with praise for its emotional precision, theatrical elegance, and unapologetic celebration of queer lives past and present. Blending history, camp, politics, and deep feeling, this is not just a play, it's a beautifully crafted time capsule.

 

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