This Is the Story of the Child Ruled by Fear

Multimedia design, technical direction and producing | A STRANGE VICTORY PERFORMANCE Canadian National Tour | Published by Playwrights Canada Press.

David Gagnon Walker has written a play for himself and a gathering of friends and strangers to read together out loud. It’s the imaginary story of an imaginary child in an imaginary land. A poetic fable about how to live with the slowly unfolding emergencies of our world, it’s also an invitation to join in on the artistic process, and a testament to the power of a roomful of people discovering a new story together.

Created by a team of award-winning artists from across Canada, This Is the Story of the Child Ruled by Fear invites you back to the theatre after the strangest year of our lives, asking you to help tell a story about worry and wonder, loneliness and community, beauty and fear. It’s an intimate reentry into the world-in-common we’ve missed so very much.

Available to tour.
Archival video and rider available upon request.

Ontario Presents Tour to Kingston (Grand Theatre), St. Catharines (First Ontario Centre), and Kitchener-Waterloo (Registry Theatre). 2025.

Presented by Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre. Gateway Theatre. Edmonton, AB. Jan 31 – Feb 4, 2024.

Presented by In the Soil Arts Festival. Oddfellows Hall. St. Catharines, ON. June 16-18, 2023.

Presented by Theatre Projects Manitoba. Théâtre Cercle Molière. Winnipeg, MB. April 28-30, 2023.

Presented by SummerWorks 2022. Franco Boni Theatre, The Theatre Centre. Toronto, ON. August 4-7, 2022.

Presented by Pi Theatre. KW Studios. Vancouver, BC. June 2-4, 2022.

Presented by High Performance Rodeo 2022. Big Secret Theatre, Arts Commons. Calgary, Alberta. May 26-28, 2022.

Presented by Found Festival 2021. Studio Theatre, ATB Financial Arts Barns. Edmonton, AB. July 8-11, 2021. Sold-out run.

Programmed by rEvolver Festival 2021, Vancouver, BC. [Cancelled due to COVID-19.]

Workshop presentation at BellsView Studios. Halifax, NS. February 28, 2020.

”I left the theatre, and a discussable and pleasurable evening, with a renewed appreciation that theatre, the art form of real people together in the same room sharing an experience, is on the right track. We’ve always known it: it’s validating to have a demo from an artist, a true original, that it’s meaningful, even cathartic, to tell stories together about what haunts us, scares us, weighs us down. There’s wonder in it. And wonder is enlivening.”
— Liz Nichols, 12thnight.ca

”Such a brilliant idea. The piece is intimate and deeply personal. It’s also driven by big, deep questions about human purpose and the much larger, mythic forces at work in all of our lives.”
— Marcus Youssef

“The divide between artist and audience becomes increasingly blurred, dynamizing the stage into a communal space for co-creation. If [this performance] proves anything, it’s that new theatrical places will continue to be explored as artists and audiences navigate the potentialities of the return to being together.”
— Derek Manderson, smART Magazine

“This Is the Story of the Child Ruled by Fear is pushing theatre to its limits.”
— Ben Boddez, Range Magazine

”We all have fears and sometimes we can be brave and sometimes we can’t. The play evades a simple answer. Nevertheless, the true outcome is that in the end, we have all partaken in a collective journey to create something that we don’t know how it goes, and we journey together with generosity for the risk of participating. The result is a kind of vulnerable rough beauty. “
— Dr. Jenn Stephenson, PLAY: The Blog