Reviews 2014
Reviews 2014
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by Morgan Jones Phillips
Drinking Well, Toronto Fringe Festival, Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace, Toronto
July 4-13, 2014;
Best of Fringe, Toronto Centre for the Arts,
July 18, 25 & 30, 2014
Morgan Jones Phillips’ solo show has been kicking around Toronto since it played at SummerWorks 2008 and the Toronto Fringe Festival in 2009. The show’s only structure is Phillips’ “Wheel of Misfortune” that he spins to choose which anecdote to tell from his work as a downtown paramedic.
The result is a parade of comically gross stories of unfortunate people without any context to place them in. The ums, ers and repetitions do not mark him as a consummate storyteller. Instead, he is a no-nonsense guy whose interest in detail and earthy sense of humour has helped him cope with horrific situations. Phillips may make light of the stress of the job by singing a song about how he is “dead inside”, but Rosamund Small’s Vitals earlier this year provided a more compassionate look at both EMS personnel and the casualties they try to help.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in NOW Magazine 2014-07-10.
Photo: Morgan Jone Phillips in front of his Wheel of Misfortune. ©2014 Michael Barker.
For tickets, visit http://fringetoronto.com or www.tocentre.com/bestoffringe2014.
2014-07-10
The Emergency Monologues