For booking information, contact:
djp@davidjohnphillips.net
Upcoming Performances
Venue + Dates
Orlando Fringe Festival
Orlando, FL
May 12-25, 2026
Edmonton Fringe Festival
Edmonton, AB
Aug 13-23, 2026
Two interwoven monologues.
I Miss the War
1967. London, England. Sodomy decriminalized! Sort of.
Jack, aging tailor to the chorus boys of the West End, watches the new generation celebrate, and laments that they will never know the outlaw happiness he knew as a youthful rentboy. He remembers meeting and having sex with God, manifest as an American GI, during the Blitz. Will the new generation be alive to that splendor, or are they are all falling into a trap – imitating Mum and Dad, wanting to marry and live together in little houses?
Slipping in and out of camp, in and out of Polari, holding court hilariously, he re-affirms, for himself and for us all, the spiritual power of transient love and of outsider community.
Oh!
2024. Toronto, Canada. Kink night! Sort of.
Matt, a service bottom with failing knees, tries to find an erotic connection with puppies and a political connection with pronoun-careful Gen Zeds. Slipping out of full leather and into a cocktail dress, he remembers a sequence of personal re-awakenings – the erotic, political, and spiritual transformations of SM, AIDS, and the Radical Faeries. Returning to the ever-unfolding present, he celebrates the continuing project of queer world-building and erotic possibility.
Together.
Sex, pleasure, kink, shame. God. During the Blitz. During the Plague. And after.
Speaking together across time and space, recalling hankies and Polari, busbies and chaps, rent boys and faeries, tea rooms and back rooms, love and death, they each bring the past to the present and celebrate the future. A hundred year sliver of queer spirit, sex, and hope in less than an hour!
Praise for
S. Bear Bergman
Next Magazine
“A sweet and startlingly kind show. I felt lucky to have been in the room for it, live. Phillips is a compelling performer, who invests himself the whole way in every moment – every joy and every disappointment, every confusion and every revelation. It’s just delicious, honestly.
I unreservedly loved this show. Deeply good and true and satisfying work happens on stag , and I really encourage you to go and be there when it does.”
Rating: NNNNN (out of 5)
Glenn Sumi
Toronto Star
“Perfect post-Pride Fringe fare. David John Phillips delivers not one but two compelling monologues about older queer lives, set 50-plus years apart in different cities. The twist? He interweaves their telling, so the narratives reflect and comment on each other. The result throbs with vitality. It feels like a treasure trove of queer history, which, during this political moment, feels more essential than ever.”
CRITICS PICK!!
Audience Responses
“Absolutely incredible! A time travelling jump back and forth in gay men history. A vivid point-counter-point between the pre and post Pride eras. It reflects so much of our experience in its totality and we can all see ourselves during specific moments in its vast timeline. It suggests a hopeful future in its summarization of the past.”
“A raw and magnificent expression of self. A must see performance from a must see performer!”
“It was poignant and perverse, a careful exploration of queerness and its inability to be confined.”
“Begging all my fellow gen-z queers to see this.”
David John Phillips
(Performer, Playwright and Sound Design)
David works out of both Toronto and New York City. He recently created the role of Jonny Devine in The Trunk at The Flea Theatre and won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the New York Theatre Festival’s Summerfest. Other NY stage credits include Gallimard in M Butterfly and Kreon in Ann Carson’s Antigonick.
In Toronto, he has played Bernadette in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Pickering in
Pygmalion, and Protasius in Purgatory in Ingolton. He has appeared in many films, including Dim the Fluorescents (Slamdance Grand Jury Prize), Diamond Tongues, Pink Rabbit, and Almost Adults.
He is a surveillance scholar and has co-created two immersive, kaleidoscopic romps through the
practices and institutions of surveillance – Cluster Fucked and Work and Play at the Threshold of
Legibility.
www.DavidJohnPhillips.net
Matthew Baldwin
(Playwright)
Matthew is a writer and actor who lives between Bangkok and London. He served as Chairman of Above The Stag Theatre in London from 2012 – 2023 and as Artistic Director from 2021 – 2022. Matthew is a fixture on London’s Pantomime scene and is a founder member of He’s Behind You Ltd – a company that produces London’s best adult pantomime.
In 2013 Matthew and Thomas Hescott developed The Act, a play for one actor, for Oval House. Matthew was nominated for an Off West End Award, jointly with Tom, in the category of Best New Playwright. In 2014 The Act transferred to Trafalgar Studios in the West End. In 2020 The Act was made into a short film starring Samuel Barnett. It was selected for the BFI Flare, Raindance and Hollyshorts festivals among many others.
Anthony Misiano
(Director)
Anthony is a multi-hyphenate living in New York City. His one man stage show I Squeezed Really Hard, co-produced by The Wild Project, received rave reviews and his short films have garnered awards at festivals around the globe. Most recently he directed the world premiere of The Trunk at The Flea in Tribeca, followed by a staged reading of A Weekend Getaway as part of the Rogue Theater Festival, also in NYC.
When not directing he works primarily as an actor and editor in indie film, TV, commercials and voice over, having had roles in Awkwafina is Nora from Queens, TURN: Washington’s Spies, as John Wilkes Booth in Legends & Lies, and as Nikola Tesla in American Genius among others.
I Miss the War is one of eight monologues in the collection Queers, curated by Mark Gatiss and commissioned by the BBC to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act. Oh! was written in response and homage to I Miss the War.
The current version of Oh! I Miss the War premiered at the 2025 Toronto Fringe Festival. Earlier versions were presented at the 2024 Vancouver Fringe Festival (under the title “2 Queens. 2 Bars. 55 Years.”) and at the 2025 International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, where it won the Sean Meehan Award for Identity in Theatre for “connecting and disconnecting the old and the new of a queer world.”
Upcoming Performances
Orlando Fringe Festival
Orlando, FL
May 12-25, 2026
Edmonton Fringe Festival
Edmonton, AB
Aug 13-23, 2026
For booking information, contact:
djp@davidjohnphillips.net
I Miss the War
1967. London, England. Sodomy decriminalized! Sort of.
Jack, aging tailor to the chorus boys of the West End, watches the new generation celebrate, and laments that they will never know the outlaw happiness he knew as a youthful rentboy. He remembers meeting and having sex with God, manifest as an American GI, during the Blitz. Will the new generation be alive to that splendor, or are they are all falling into a trap – imitating Mum and Dad, wanting to marry and live together in little houses?
Slipping in and out of camp, in and out of Polari, holding court hilariously, he re-affirms, for himself and for us all, the spiritual power of transient love and of outsider community.
Oh!
2024. Toronto, Canada. Kink night! Sort of.
Matt, a service bottom with failing knees, tries to find an erotic connection with puppies and a political connection with pronoun-careful Gen Zeds. Slipping out of full leather and into a cocktail dress, he remembers a sequence of personal re-awakenings – the erotic, political, and spiritual transformations of SM, AIDS, and the Radical Faeries. Returning to the ever-unfolding present, he celebrates the continuing project of queer world-building and erotic possibility.
Together.
Sex, pleasure, kink, shame. God. During the Blitz. During the Plague. And after.
Speaking together across time and space, recalling hankies and Polari, busbies and chaps, rent boys and faeries, tea rooms and back rooms, love and death, they each bring the past to the present and celebrate the future. A hundred year sliver of queer spirit, sex, and hope in less than an hour!
I Miss the War is one of eight monologues in the collection Queers, curated by Mark Gatiss and commissioned by the BBC to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act. Oh! was written in response and homage to I Miss the War.
The current version of Oh! I Miss the War premiered at the 2025 Toronto Fringe Festival. Earlier versions were presented at the 2024 Vancouver Fringe Festival (under the title “2 Queens. 2 Bars. 55 Years.”) and at the 2025 International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, where it won the Sean Meehan Award for Identity in Theatre for “connecting and disconnecting the old and the new of a queer world.”
David John Phillips
(Performer, Playwright and Sound Design)
David works out of both Toronto and New York City. He recently created the role of Jonny Devine in The Trunk at The Flea Theatre and won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the New York Theatre Festival’s Summerfest. Other NY stage credits include Gallimard in M Butterfly and Kreon in Ann Carson’s Antigonick.
In Toronto, he has played Bernadette in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Pickering in
Pygmalion, and Protasius in Purgatory in Ingolton. He has appeared in many films, including Dim the Fluorescents (Slamdance Grand Jury Prize), Diamond Tongues, Pink Rabbit, and Almost Adults.
He is a surveillance scholar and has co-created two immersive, kaleidoscopic romps through the
practices and institutions of surveillance – Cluster Fucked and Work and Play at the Threshold of
Legibility.
www.DavidJohnPhillips.net
Matthew Baldwin
(Playwright)
Matthew is a writer and actor who lives between Bangkok and London. He served as Chairman of Above The Stag Theatre in London from 2012 – 2023 and as Artistic Director from 2021 – 2022. Matthew is a fixture on London’s Pantomime scene and is a founder member of He’s Behind You Ltd – a company that produces London’s best adult pantomime.
In 2013 Matthew and Thomas Hescott developed The Act, a play for one actor, for Oval House. Matthew was nominated for an Off West End Award, jointly with Tom, in the category of Best New Playwright. In 2014 The Act transferred to Trafalgar Studios in the West End. In 2020 The Act was made into a short film starring Samuel Barnett. It was selected for the BFI Flare, Raindance and Hollyshorts festivals among many others.
Anthony Misiano
(Director)
Anthony is a multi-hyphenate living in New York City. His one man stage show I Squeezed Really Hard, co-produced by The Wild Project, received rave reviews and his short films have garnered awards at festivals around the globe. Most recently he directed the world premiere of The Trunk at The Flea in Tribeca, followed by a staged reading of A Weekend Getaway as part of the Rogue Theater Festival, also in NYC.
When not directing he works primarily as an actor and editor in indie film, TV, commercials and voice over, having had roles in Awkwafina is Nora from Queens, TURN: Washington’s Spies, as John Wilkes Booth in Legends & Lies, and as Nikola Tesla in American Genius among others.
Critical praise for
“Rating: NNNNN (out of 5)”
“Sweet and startlingly kind.”
“Just delicious.”
“I unreservedly loved this show.”
