Synopsis
The play is seen from the prospective of the eleven year old boy named Jonas. Jonas lives in a futuristic society that knows no pain, fear, war, or hatred. Everything in this society is black and white. There is little competition between the people in the town and there are no prejudices held against one another. At twelve years of age, every member of the community is assigned a job according to his capabilities and own interests. Citizens are not allowed to fall in love on their own; they must apply to get a spouse and then they are assigned exactly two children. Citizens who do not abide by the rules are released.
Jonas lives with his father, mother, and seven year old sister Lily. Jonas is apprehensive of becoming of age and receiving his assignment for the community. Jonas is different from most people in the community. Jonas has a sense of perception in which he can look at something and cause it to “change”; he can see things in flashes of color.
When he turns twelve he is given the assignment of being the Receiver of Memory. Jonas receives memories of the past, the good, and the bad, from the current Receiver; a man who is referred to as the Giver. The Giver has the ability to see the world as it used to be, before everything became the same. Jonas and the Giver devise a plan that could forever change the world.
History of Performance
The Giver was originally written as a novel written by Lois Lowry that was published in 1993. In 2006 Oregon Children’s Theatre premiered a stage adaptation adapted by Eric Coble. Coble’s adaptation was presented in the Coterie Theatre in Missouri all the way to the Theatre of Youth in Buffalo, New York.
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