The Emergency Monologues - the real thing
I saw The Emergency Monologues immediately after seeing Talk Sixty to Me. I left that show, which used the words of sixty year olds in a highly mediated-form, wondering if the audience had really felt as if they’d experienced something authentic. If they had, then I wish they’d come next door with me and listened to the stories of Morgan Jones Philips.
The Emergency Monologues is about the experiences of a Toronto paramedic. Morgan Jones Philips is a Toronto paramedic. Really, he is. And if what he said on the night I saw his performance is true, he isn’t even taking time off from work, he’s still on the night-shift.
I really shouldn’t reveal the content of the show. It wouldn’t be fair. These are Philips stories to tell and you should go and hear him tell them. I can describe the format. There is a giant wheel in the middle of the stage with the titles of dozens of stories. This wheel is delightfully crude. It looks like something I would have made. Philips gets up on stage, spins the wheel and tells you whatever story the wheel stops at. I suspect that there might be one or two stories that he gives every night (and he should do, they are incredible) but the rest of them are left to chance so that no two performances will be the same.
Philips is a most unlikely performer. The show and his performance are not polished. In fact, his awkwardness at the top of the show on the night I attended put me in mind of a first-time, stand-up comedian trying out his untested material. Philips quickly warms up, however, and once he’s in full flow he’s an accomplished storyteller. Some of the stories he tells are horrific and one of them – about a man cheerfully cutting off his own penis – had me feeling queasy (the show does contain some graphic images, so if you are squeamish you might want to give it a pass).
The Emergency Monologues gives you glimpses of sights you pray you’ll never have to witness for yourself. But there is more going on here than just a series of horror stories and gallows humour. There is one story – and I hope Philips tells it every performance – that deftly distinguishes the difference between seeing and experiencing. It contains an image that will stay with me forever and illustrates just how profoundly traumatic his job can be. While ensuring the greater good was served, Philips and his partner had to contend with parents whose baby had just died. A father himself, Philips had to do something that is quite simply unbelievable. He choked in the telling of this story. It took a form of raw bravery to share this experience. I’m grateful he did.
At the end, Philips takes the opportunity to tell how under-resourced the Toronto emergency service is. I don’t know the geography Toronto well enough but the coverage sounds very Spartan. Philips says that the biggest factor in saving someone’s life is time, how quickly an ambulance can get to the individual in need. Quite simply, Toronto needs more ambulances and paramedics.
If Talk Sixty to Me is the reality television of this year’s SummerWorks Festival, The Emergency Monologues is the evening news.
The Emergency Monologues by Morgan Jones Phillips; Directed by Evalyn Parry; Presented by Drinking Well; Featuring Morgan Jones Phillips. Part of the 2008 SummerWorks Festival. For show times and more information go here.