The Commedia Pied Piper

In 1842, Robert Browning wrote a beautiful poem about the legend of a mysterious piper who used his mesmerizing music to rid a town of rats. But when the greedy town leaders refused to pay the piper for his services, he used the same skill to lure away all the town’s children. This is not that story. Well, not exactly that story. Told in the zany slapstick style of Commedia dell’arte, this is the Pied Piper of Hamelin like you have never seen him before. Rats? We got rats. Cats? We got cats. We also have dogs, ducks, eagles, possums…and even caterpillars! Lane Riosley has written a funny and imaginative retelling of an originally tragic story, complete with a hilariously happy ending.