Beginning Jan. 23, the Indiana Repertory Theatre (IRT) will bring Lois Lowry’s Newbery Award-winning children’s novel, The Giver, to its Upperstage. This cross-generational story engages both adults who grew up reading the novel and children who are reading it for the first time.
In this play, adapted by Eric Coble and directed by IRT’s Associate Artistic Director Courtney Sale, audiences experience a utopian society where citizens have eliminated human characteristics in exchange for a safe and a sanitized existence. What at first appears to be an idyllic society, quickly unfolds into dystopia when Jonas (played by Grayson Molin) discovers his ability to see beyond the world of grey that has been created by his citizenry.
As his unique abilities emerge, he and The Giver (played by David Allen Anderson) who is charged with transferring memories of love, beauty, sadness, war, music and more, devise a plan which allows Jonas to escape to “elsewhere,” freeing the society from the opaque lens from which they perceive life’s limited depth and beauty.
“The production works beautifully because it allows audiences to experience a great narrative that takes a look at becoming an adult, understanding manipulative culture and determining how young adults choose to do something about it,” said Sale. “This is a story of enormous awakening; it’s about a brave young man who challenges the space of disobedience.”
The Giver, endlessly thought-provoking and daring, challenges audiences to question the dangers of conformity and the power of truth. The show runs January 23 through February 21, and is one hour and thirty minutes with no intermission.