Vancouver Fringe Fest review: Bookworm is a gift

What a gift. In this one-man show, immaculately dramaturged by TJ Dawe and deftly directed by Morgan Jones Phillips, writer-performer Corin Raymond recalls a childhood surrounded by his father’s books, which offered comfort, reassurance, and escape from unusually lonely circumstances. He praises his dad’s storytelling for its well-chosen details, a skill the younger Raymond shares: a Twilight Zone character has “hair like busted couch stuffing”; Spider-Man is “the Charlie Brown of superheroes”. Raymond has impeccable timing, and his performance is at once intimate, openhearted, and evangelical: “Reading aloud to someone is a way to cross souls,” he effuses, making you ache to return to your favourite books, recite poems from memory, and read aloud to someone you love.