Oh! I Miss the War

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.

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!

Credits

Written by Matthew Baldwin and David John Phillips

Performed by David John Phillips

Directed by Anthony Misiano

Accessibility

Sensory Warnings: There are no sensory warnings for this show.

Content Warnings: Adult language, adult themes, discussions of sex, full nudity (brief)n

About the Artist

David John Phillips 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 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 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.

• Event Types - Dramedy
• $0.00
• 29-January 31, 2026
• 60 minutes
• Intrepid Studio
• Intrepid Studio
• Adults Only
• 
  Sensory Warnings: There are no sensory warnings for this show. Content Warnings: Adult language, adult themes, discussions of sex, full nudity (brief)