Overview

The Pied Piper is based on the traditional tale made famous by Robert Browning, and uses much of Browning’s poem. This adaptation has the Piper making his first appearance as a modern busker, delighting the children with his music. Their parents, though, are not so delighted and soon put a stop to the energetic dancing, telling the children and the busker that music has been banned on this street for hundreds of years. The children ask why. In reply, the townsfolk act out the story of the Pied Piper, playing their medieval counterparts and involving the children and the busker as the Piper. But when the tale is told, the Piper once again enchants the children with his music, and the horrified townsfolk suddenly realise that he has come back to claim his fee, refused to him all those years ago. All ends happily, however, for it seems that, consumed by guilt, the medieval townsfolk put aside the thousand gilders, just in case the Piper should ever return. The Piper accepts his fee, and frees Hamelin from his curse at long last.