A gripping vet implausible premise

Production features fine performances if you fully buy in to this 2016 play’s finicky narrative

- JOSHUA CHONG

George F. Walker must be the busiest man in Toronto theatre right now. A pair of new companies in the city are concurrently presenting two of his plays. And both productions, opening days apart, happen to be directed by the playwright himself.

It makes sense that these new indie theatres would select works by Walker to mark their entrance onto the scene; the Canadian author knows how to write dramas that make a statement: an emphatic, grab-you-by-the-collar kind of statement that would put any emerging company on the map.

First was the King Black Box Theatre, which launched its inaugural season with a smoulderingly brilliant Toronto premiere of “Girls Unwanted.”

Now, the Moss Theatre Collective has announced its arrival with a new production of Walker’s “Fierce,” co-presented by the Alumnae Theatre Company.

At first glance, the play feels like a strong fit for the new non-union theatre, whose mandate is to promote works by Canadian dramatists. The 2016 play is a modest, intermissionless two-hander, requiring little by way of a set (designed by Douglas Tiller) and fitting more than comfortably into Alumnae’s third-floor Studio Theatre.