A Life In 60 Minutes

Very well done and an intimate revelation of the challenges experienced by Dwayne.

Dwayne Morgan’s A Life In 60 Minutes is a series of spoken word poems that emerge so organically out of his conversational storytelling about his life that it feels like one hour-long epic poem. This piece is absolutely incredible. It’s one of the best spoken word poetry performances I’ve ever seen. The first poem is performed with such an incredible rollicking speed that the line from Lin Manuel Miranda popped into my head about Alexander Hamilton, that he was writing like he was “running out of time.” I don’t think I blinked for sixty minutes.

Morgan tells us the story of growing up in Scarborough at a time when that could be a death sentence, and how his parents arrived in Toronto from Jamaica when they were 21 years old, and they experienced a massive cultural and identity shift that profoundly shaped their lives, and the life of their child. The piece explores the realities of being a Black man in Canada, of raising a Black daughter, and of growing older and caring for aging parents.

This piece takes a lot of the conversations that have been in the zeitgeist for the last ten years or so around Black Lives Matter, strong Black girls, immigrants, the particular struggles of inner city racialized neighbourhoods, the consequences of historic systemic racism that continue to reverberate today, misogyny, and misogynoir, and presents it in such a vivid, immediate, powerfully constructed way. I had never heard of “picture day,” a day when young Black boys in particular get their pictures taken in their Sunday best so their parents have a photo to give to the media in case they are killed by the police that cannot be misconstrued as insinuating that they are members of gangs or criminal organizations, because they know that the photo that is chosen will dictate how much empathy and compassion is given to their child in death. There is much to fill you with fury and heartbreak here. Read more at the link

This show started out very fast-paced, which was great, but then the tempo moderated as Dwayne went through the ups and downs of his life so far. I really enjoyed this show and felt that I got a glimpse of his joys and conflicts as a black man with immigrant parents. I really appreciated the frank language, the playing with language and the immediacy of emotion. Highly recommend!

Such an interesting, intimate, astute and fun journey through Dwayne’s life as a Black man, a dad, a son and a lover. A must see!!

Beautifully articulated, fast paced spoken word interspersed with a more conversational, almost conspiritorial soliloquy. Dwayne Morgan pulls you into his world with honesty and candor. Sometimes painful, often insightful and humorous too. Relatable and endearing.

Thanks for your words and writings (bought one of your books - hard to choose as all were appealing).

Go see this one - - you won't regret it.

Firstly, this performer is undeniably talented. His performance is tightly-rehearsed, he has a smooth flow, and he goes on for a dense 60 minutes. His storytelling moves seamlessly into spoken word poetry, which is something a bit more exciting than the regular guy-with-a-mic style of storytelling we see at the Fringe.

Most of the writing itself is solid, with plenty of rap-style punchlines that brought each story to a clever end. There are somewhat cliche and derivative bits throughout that we’ve already seen before, for example when discussing what it would be like if men had periods.

Discussion of racism is fairly entry-level and didactic, probably suited to an older Whiter crowd who isn’t totally familiar with antiblackness in Canada. I prefer something a bit more artful and nuanced from political art, that doesn’t feed every right answer to the audience.

Overall, I think this is a solid showing at the Fringe. And perhaps, considering the very, very low numbers of shows with Black leads in the festival and our theatre community generally, something accessible to a broad audience that can comment on racism without making them uncomfortable is still needed. Personally, I’m looking for something that pushes further.

It was a kind of interesting story but I really don’t like the way he delivered it.

Everyone else seemed to like it , must just be me then.

I could say a million things that I like about this show - the poetry, pacing, and performance are all excellent - but was resonated with me was the portrayal of a strong but non toxic masculinity; a man who saw where he came from and learned from it, becoming better in the process.

GO SEE IT

Dwayne is a masterful wordsmith and storyteller. As a fellow spoken word artist I was wowed by The construction and delivery of this piece. The title says it all, and the poetry takes us on a journey from birth to the edge of death and brings up every range of emotions, including laughter as we get to middle-age life. A piece like this could feel disjointed, but I felt invited in for the entire flow. This is a show you want to see again because the words comment you were so rapidly and bring up so much emotion that You can’t possibly adjust everything and just one viewing. Don’t miss this one!

"We are the voices, we are the ones." I chose this quote to start my review because Dwayne Morgan's one-man performance builds on the idea that everyone should have the right to be who they want to be. Unfortunately, the world we live in doesn't allow for that. "A Life In 60 Minutes" expresses hard-to-talk-about topics in such a relatable and thoughtful way while giving a voice to issues that need to be heard. Morgan speaks about the struggles human beings encounter when they are Black people, women, immigrants and/or Indigenous people. I personally enjoy when people bring up the problems of our world and society instead of ignoring that there's a problem to begin with. Although Morgan talks about deep and heavy topics, the room and mood never felt too heavy. A few comedic lines sprinkled in the performance allowed for any potential tension to be cut. Through poetry, Morgan was able to express these ideas in such a way that left the room feeling safe rather than uneasy. Something I took away from this performance was the line, "Your intellect is a switchblade that will always be sharper than your tongue." This is a strong and relatable statement that resonated with me because it emphasizes the power of intellect and knowledge. I hope all who see his performance take away something meaningful from the experience. Morgan's one-man performance reminds us that our voices matter and that the stories and struggles we face deserve to be heard.

Do you want to feel something today? This show is for you. The writing is clever, the rhythm and rhymes are satisfying, and Dwayne's delivery keeps you locked into the story. I loved the structure and order of the pieces coming together as a the journey through life. I feel this is something I could come back to over and over and still get something new out it every time.