David has written a play for himself and a gathering of friends and strangers to read together out loud. It tells the story of the rise and fall of an imaginary civilization in an imaginary land. Some of it is fact, some fiction. But at any point you may be part of a Greek chorus, playing a main character, or collectively confronting your fears about a world on the verge of collapse. Are you ready to take a leap of faith? It’s okay if you feel nervous. David is nervous too. With so much to be fearful of these days, it’s best to brave this thing together.

An ingenious exercise in interactive storytelling, This Is the Story of the Child Ruled by Fear is a poetic and participatory fable about how to live with the slowly unfolding emergencies of our time. Playwright David Gagnon Walker guides us through an enchanting performance ritual that provides a communal, cathartic release for those prone to anxiety, fear, and depression. It’s an invitation to share the joys of creating a story together so that maybe we can all feel less alone.

David Gagnon Walker is a writer, performer, and translator born in Edmonton and based in Toronto. His work has been performed and developed in cities across Canada, and through residencies in Sweden, Finland, France, Australia, and the USA. His awards include the Playwrights Guild of Canada RBC Emerging Playwright Award for The Big Ship, first prize in the Wildfire National Playwriting Competition for Pink Moon, and the Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal Cole Foundation Mentorship for Emerging Translators. Other plays include Premium Content (Major Matt Mason Collective/High Performance Rodeo), The Last Children (Curtain Razors), and the English translation of Gabrielle Chapdelaine's The Retreat (Imago Theatre). David is Artistic Producer of Strange Victory Performance, a collaboration with composer and video designer Tori Morrison, through which he has been touring experimental and interactive performance projects since 2020. He holds an M.A. in Performance Studies from the University of Toronto and is a graduate of the playwriting program at the National Theatre School of Canada.

David Gagnon Walker's profile page

“I can’t think of another work of art, let alone theatre, that makes it so easy to collectively consider the terrifying aspects of our changing world and warming planet without shame and panic as an underscore, and where instead of being a chore or embarrassment, audience participation truly makes you feel less alone.”

Zoe Glassman

“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

“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

“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.”

Liz Nicholls, 12thNight.ca