David John Phillips on Writing OH! I MISS THE WAR and Its Hopeful Message for the Queer Community

Geek Girl Authority

17 hours ago

Sometimes, all it takes is one monologue to awaken the muse. Actor and playwright David John Phillips, whose acclaimed new play Oh! I Miss the War is poised to take the Toronto Fringe Festival by storm, penned his latest work after finding inspiration from a monologue by Matthew Baldwin that features an older gay man.
Recently, I had the privilege of chatting with David about bringing Oh! I Miss the War to life, the impetus behind writing it, how it's a love letter to queer elders and more.
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This interview is condensed for length and clarity. David John Phillips Pictured: David John Phillips
Melody McCune: We at GGA love a good origin story. How did you get into the arts?
David John Phillips: I have always been an actor, actually, since childhood. I did my undergraduate degree at NYU Tisch School back in the '70s. Getting into the arts was pretty organic. Then, I fell out of the arts. After my undergraduate degree, I spent a few years as a professional actor, but found it impossible. I left acting and went into a career in academia.
About 15 years ago, I thought that I needed to have fun. So, I started acting again, and it was fun. That's briefly how I went in and how I came out and how I went back again. Of course, there's a lot more detail there. That's the general outline. Oh! I Miss the War
MM: Let's talk about Oh! I Miss the War . Can you tell me what it's about and the impetus behind writing it?
DJP: Let me go with the impetus behind writing it first. Let me give you a bit of an origin story. That's a fascinating origin story. I was in the library of the National Theatre in London. I saw a volume entitled Queers and thought, 'I have to buy that one,' so I bought it and discovered it was a collection of eight monologues commissioned by the BBC to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the decriminalization of sodomy in the UK. One of the monologues was for an older gay man. Good monologues for older gay men are not common.
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At that point, it became my COVID project to work on the monologue. That monologue features an old queen in a bar in London in 1967, during the week that sodomy was decriminalized. He's watching all the youngsters celebrate this, and thinking, 'What do they want to do? Get married next?' He laments the loss of the outlaw pleasures he had. He doesn't put it this way, of course, but he's concerned about creeping heteronormativity. He speaks Polari, an underground argot common in most of the first half of the 20th century among the gay subculture. Embracing the History
That's the first part. I performed it and really loved the monologue, but it was 20 minutes. I thought I would like to make an evening out of this. So, I wrote a companion piece set more or less in the current day, but with a similar structure to the older queen. This time, a leather queen sits in a leather bar in the current day, looking at the youngsters and wondering where he fits in. Why doesn't he understand what they're saying?
Both of them come back to really embracing the history they're looking at — the past they have been a part of and the future they're uncertain of. But there's a real sense of hope and love and compassion for the people in front of them now. That's where the piece came from and what it's about.
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MM: What can audiences expect when they watch the show?
DJP: They can expect to be moved. It's very funny. Jack, the queen from 1967, is an entertainer and is very funny. Matt, the leather queen of today, has a more wry sense of humor, but is also very funny. They each enjoy finding the humor in the situation. People can certainly expect to laugh.
People can expect to appreciate the past, present and continuation of the project of queer world-building we've been engaged in for hundreds of years.
Jack remembers back to 1932, and Matt talks about life today. People can expect to enjoy a sense of hope and reassurance that we've been doing this and we're still doing it. Life sucks, but that's fine.
MM: Describe Oh! I Miss the War using three words.
DJP: Queer. Sexy. Compassionate.
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MM: I love that. What was it like for you getting to wear multiple hats as a writer and actor, from the inception of this show to getting it on its feet?
DJP: I have really enjoyed the writing part. It was difficult, but the most difficult part of writing was done for me because I knew what I wanted to write about. I knew I wanted to write in response to Matthew Baldwin's piece. Matthew Baldwin is the playwright of I Miss the War .
It was a lot of fun, very evocative and very moving to write the companion piece, called Oh! . That's the title of the second monologue. It was fun to perform a piece that I had written. I had to be careful to say, 'No, David, say the lines as you wrote them. There is a text here, and you can't make it up just because you wrote it. You decided with good care how this line would read, so read the line you wrote.'
That was interesting. For the first several iterations, I directed it myself, which felt a bit like it was not directed. Now, for this iteration, I have hired a director. Very glad for that. It just looks more professional, more together. It's a much tighter and more theatrical show than it had been. I do not enjoy producing. I know that. The payoff from the producing, though, is that I get to do the show I want.
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MM: What have you taken away from this experience?
DJP: I'll give you an anecdote. As I said, in Jack's piece, I Miss the War , a significant part is his concern that the subculture will die. That with this greater acceptance, with this openness, people are going to get married and move to the suburbs. What's the point of being queer if you're going to do that? I was performing in Toronto at Glad Day Bookshop, the oldest surviving gay bookstore in the world. As I was doing the show, I was looking around at the staff of this bookstore, looking around at the people frequenting the bookstore, and thinking, 'We're doing fine. We are plenty queer.'
That's the main thing I have taken away from it. More prosaically, the other thing I'm taking away from it is a good show. A good show that is in my back pocket and that will travel. Influences and What's on the Horizon
MM: Who are your influences as a playwright?
DJP: Joni Mitchell is the first that pops into my head. The second piece, the piece I wrote, is pretty autobiographical. Looking at Joni Mitchell's work and her ability to take a very precise moment in life, explore that reverberation into history — into the cosmos — and then bring it back to that moment. It is the structure of many Joni Mitchell songs. That was really helpful to me in terms of the structure of the play. I often said, 'Look, if Joni can be this honest, I can be this honest. If Joni can talk about her life like this, I can talk about my life like this.'
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That courage in self-disclosure was really valuable to me. Matthew Baldwin, the playwright, said, 'Sure, write about yourself. The more specific and honest you can make it, the more universal it will be, the more people will resonate with it.' Those were really valuable precepts that I came back to again and again in writing it.
MM: What else is on the horizon for you, career-wise?
DJP: I will continue to shop this play around festivals. Also, I have this fantasy, which I don't think is completely unrealistic, but we're pursuing it. I think that universities and colleges with queer student groups, theater departments, queer studies or just queer student groups with a bit of a budget would love to bring me in for a weekend and perform this show and talk about it. I would like to try to do that.
Oh! I Miss the War premieres at Native Earth's Aki Studio as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival on July 2, 2025, and will conclude its run on July 13. To keep up with David, check out his site.
5 Queer YA Retellings of CINDERELLA Contact:
[email protected] What I do: I'm GGA's Managing Editor, a Senior Contributor, and Press Coordinator. I manage, contribute, and coordinate. Sometimes all at once. Joking aside, I oversee day-to-day operations for GGA, write, edit, and assess interview opportunities/press events. Who I am: Before moving to Los Angeles after studying theater in college, I was born and raised in Amish country, Ohio. No, I am not Amish, even if I sometimes sport a modest bonnet. Bylines in: Tell-Tale TV, Culturess, Sideshow Collectibles, and inkMend on Medium.
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