[NEohioPAL] REVIEW: "The Giver" at Canton Players Guild

[Tom Wachunas via NEohioPAL]

Remembering A Loveless Future?

By Tom Wachunas


 
    The program notesby director Jonathan Tisevich for the current Players Guild production of The Giver are, like the story, Spartanand foreboding. “The GIVER is a warning shot across the bow to America 2015,”Tisevich writes at one point. True enough. Yet, this cautionary parabledescribes a hypothetical societal ethos far darker and more disturbing thanmerely “American” in nature.


    Spartan, too, isthe scenic design by Joshua Erichsen. The stage looks like a towering warehouseof neutral- toned walls that eerily underscore a cold homogeneity, a literallycolorless reality. It’s a reality governed by stringent regulations of humanexpressivity and behavior. Devoid of cultural memory and diversity, it’s a realitybuilt upon correcting “The Ruin” of a history remembered by only a singleindividual, the revered “Receiver of Memory,” an advisor to the Council ofElders. The controlling mantra for all  communication in this dystopia is “precisionof language.” Undesired individuals, from babies to the elderly, are summarily“released” – a numbing euphemism, of course, for killed. 


    Precision oflanguage? In terms of compelling literature for the stage, Eric Coble’sadaptation of the Lois Lowry book (which I didn’t read) often seems ambivalentand underdeveloped.  Still, the castmanages to invest their portrayals of brainwashed citizens with some memorableif not always likeable affect.  


   The character ofJonas, played by the Dominic Martello with riveting urgency, is the only one inhis community who authentically feels the tragic emptiness of his world. We areas much repulsed as fascinated by Jonas’s parents (Tom Bryant as the father,Cheryl Henderson as the mother) and delightfully impish little sister (ElisePakiela) and their formulaic language which has been mostly emptied ofsincerity or real meaning, and likewise Anne Rematt’s robot-like, martialrendering of the Chief Elder. While Jonas’s friends, the endearingly clumsy Asher(Zach Blake) and the sweet, reserved Fiona (Katie Remark) “graduate” to theirassigned jobs in the community, ironically enough Jonas is assigned to beginhis training to be the next Receiver.


    It’s an educational process both ecstatic andexcruciating for both Jonas and his teacher, the aging Giver. In that role,Donald Jones is a poignant and compassionate presence, his demeanor acombination of gentle authority and wearied, even sad resolve as he begins to transmitthe unimaginable weight of his collected remembrances to his youthful charge. AsJonas acquires those memories – including the horrors of war and his firstinkling of real love - sections of books in the Giver’s massive library on thedrab rear wall of the set progressively light up in rainbow hues. ThusJonas’s  gift for “seeing beyond”  is intensely illuminated and he realizes hemust journey outside his community to mysterious “Elsewhere” if there is anyhope of changing the world. And so he escapes with an infant named Gabriel, whowas scheduled for release.        

    We’re never toldhow, exactly, Jonas plans to bring his desires to fruition. We’re left,arguably too much, to our own imaginative devices. As it is, his arduous wintryjourney ends at the house of a family celebrating Christmas. Jonas exclaims,“Gabriel, we’re home!”  Is it so unreasonable to make a connectionbetween baby Gabriel and the angel of the same name, the messenger of true Hopeand Joy, whom we associate with The Holy Family?


    In the end, maybewhat’s missing from this play is…precision of vision.

  

   The Giver, THROUGH March 8, at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday,at Players Guild Theatre Mainstage,Cultural Center for the Arts, 1101 Market Ave. N, Canton. TICKETS: $25 foradults, $23 for seniors, $17 for ages 17 and younger. On sale at 330-453-7617and www.playersguildtheatre.com.

    For other commentariesby Tom Wachunas on the arts in the greater Canton area, please visit ARTWACHat  www.artwach.blogspot.com 


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