Back in the Saddle - The High Performance Rodeo is Here with A Child Ruled by Fear
The High Performance Rodeo is back! One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo (HPRodeo) is returning with a series of seven productions and presentations this spring including This Is the Story of the Child Ruled by Fear, May 26 - 28. Hand-picked to delight audiences, these seven selections represent what HPRodeo is all about – wild and ambitious, progressive and provocative, and inherently LIVE. We had a chance to sit down with artist David Gagnon Walker, creator of This Is the Story of the Child Ruled by Fear to find out what inspired him and how this unique show came to be.
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your production?
A few years ago I was living in Nova Scotia. One afternoon in the summer I was standing by the ocean feeling waves of fear crash over me. There’s a climate apocalypse happening and no one can agree on anything and nobody likes me and nothing means anything and nothing feels good. It was overwhelming and familiar. I sat on the rocks and wrote a little story about a child ruled by fear in an imaginary world ruled by fickle gods.
I kept writing and looking at the ocean for a few months. Then I had a longer story, about a child and a city and a feeling and a city-wrecking flood. It felt like a play, but it didn’t feel like a play.
I thought about what to do with this story. I thought about this fear I’m always feeling. I thought about how lots of other people seem to feel that fear too. Maybe there’s something about getting together and saying these things out loud. Maybe people might like to read this story out loud with me. Maybe that’s the show.
Do you have a funny or inspiring moment you can share with us that has happened while on stage with this production or during the creation process?
Near the end of the piece, there’s a “big scene” that I read with an audience member. It goes to some pretty raw places to do with my personal life and mental health. On the last night of our run in my hometown of Edmonton, the audience member reading that scene with me was – totally by chance – my dad. The experience was hilarious, challenging, touching, and strange. It captured so much of why I love doing this show, and the unpredictable human magic that can happen when audiences and I tell this story together.
Why should audiences come see your show?
My favourite part of the theatre process has always been the first reading of a new play. There’s real power in a room full of people discovering a story by reading it together out loud – it’s such a clear, transformative experience. It’s also an experience that usually isn’t public-facing. I love our show because it lets audience members be part of this process.
The piece is about climate anxiety, regular old anxiety, depression, and wonder. It’s about feeling alone in your head in a bewildering world. These are normally pretty private experiences. Our show is an invitation to feel them in community, through the medium of a poetic, funny story we create together. It’s a fun, gentle experience about big feelings and scary things.
(And to be clear: nobody has to read out loud. And the folks who would like to read are guided into it clearly and safely. We dislike participatory art that puts people on the spot, and we’ve been very careful not to make that kind of show.)
Do you have a favourite memory about One Yellow Rabbit or the High Performance Rodeo?
The first time I came to the Rodeo was in 2020, when Major Matt Mason Collective produced my script Premium Content at the GRAND Theatre. Something about the festival happening in the middle of the Alberta winter gives it a pretty special energy. It was -30°C our whole week of shows, and people still turned out. The warmth from audiences, fellow artists, and the city at large was totally envigorating. I can’t wait to be back.
What inspires you as an artist?
Tall mountains. Big feelings. Hard questions. Funny jokes. The private, tender parts of life. Paradoxes. Things we don’t have words for. People that I love.
What are you looking forward to when you come to Calgary for the High Performance Rodeo (could be festival or city related)?
Calgary is full of dear friends I don’t see often enough. I’m really looking forward to catching up with old pals.
I’m also excited to be back in a festival environment after two long years of making things online. I haven’t hated this digital shift – lots about it excites me! – but there’s a social aspect of meeting new people at a festival bar that you just don’t get on Zoom.
What are you reading right now?
Lately I’ve been keeping multiple books on the go at once. I never used to do that. Funny what this strange time has done to our attention spans. Right now, I’m reading a book about whales called Fathoms by Rebecca Giggs, a French translation of Beauty and Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata, and an amazing novel from last year by Shola von Reinhold called Lote.
What artist or song are you rocking out to right now in the car?
I can’t connect my phone to my car, and I currently have two CDs: Let England Shake by PJ Harvey, and the self-titled album by the B-52’s. So, those! Not entirely by choice! (Though both are great.)
Any additional final words or thoughts to share?
If you need reading glasses, and you’d like to read out loud at our show, remember to bring them! (My dad taught us this lesson the hard way.)
