OCT’s The Giver – A Review

Parents who are familiar with Lois Lowry’s haunting book, The Giver, will already know that the play is going to be heavy. For those who are new to the story, let me tell you now, if you’re thinking of bring younger children to OCT’s production, you will want to wait for Fancy Nancy or Skippyjon Jones later in the season. The dystopian themes and existential questions of The Giver are perfect for the older kid, the one that can’t get her nose out of the Hunger Games or Divergent series, but is going to be WAY too much for kids under age nine or ten. Truly.

Age guidelines taken care of, you are in for a treat. The Giver is getting a lot of attention this year, it was a OBOB selection for 5th graders and a full-length movie is in production right now, so this book from the early 90s is absolutely “hot” again, and with good reason. After the show, you will be having big talks with your family about both the damaging and preserving power of memory and emotion, how language, color, feelings and rules shape our world, how our communities should be structured and the value of suffering, among other things. Sounds like a lot? It is, and in the bestof ways.

It’s a special thing to get to see this particular production of The Giver. Oregon Children’s Theatre commissioned this stage adaptation of The Giver by Eric Coble back March 2006, and since then, it’s been performed hundreds of time around the country before coming home. We are very lucky in Portland to have OCT consistently producing new work, it’s the sign of a truly healthy and engaged theater company. I’d prefer to tell you next to nothing about the play itself, other than to share that the set is stark and stunning, the cast is superb, and the pace is perfect, making an hour and a half with no intermission feel like the blink of an eye. If you have a chance to see The Giver at OCT, you must go. Even if it means ditching toddlers with a babysitter and borrowing a tween for a date.