The Pied Piper’s recorder would have come in handing for getting the grandchildren to theTararua Tramping Club hall on time – but we make it and even manage to bypass the 50c sweet bags without incident. Two of the three immediately join the others on the mat down the front and chat to two of the actors. It’s a friendly environment.

Since 2007 KidzStuff Theatre for Children has done eight Rob Ormsby plays: (from the most recent) The Three Lil’ Pigs Wild Adventure, The Princess and The Pea, Jack and the Beanstalk reprised, The Hare and The Tortoise, The Ugly Duckling, The Pied Piper, Which Witch Is Which?, Jack and the Beanstalk. This The Pied Piper is the second to be reprised for a new generation, directed by Amalia Calder this time.

Well-timed for the looming local body elections, the premise is that Mum (Emma Katene) is going off to her Council meeting, leaving Dad (Tom Kereama) to get Abby (Maddie Brooks Gillespie) and Marco (Adam Koveskali) to bed. Cheese sandwiches, a remote control and the concept of promises are astutely dropped into the opening sequence to be utilised later. 

Having designated the kids’ beds-cum-bean bags ‘Secret Imaginary Adventure Machines’ and their dressing gowns ‘Magic Adventure Suits’, Dad uses his bag of tricks to regenerate the classic German fairy tale – starting with a parade. Later he will use the remote to Pause, Rewind, Play and Fast Forward by way managing the story.

Madam Mayor Moneybags (Katene) is quickly established as the cheese-loving, self-loving and self-aggrandising ‘baddie’ with treasurer Abacus (Brooks Gillespie) and PA Maple (Koveskali) in grovelling attendance. Her horror at discovering children are present amuses them greatly. When she says they’re no use because they don’t pay taxes, a boy smartly replies, “We don’t even have a job!” This audience is not shy and the actors accommodate their interjections well.  

The idea that election promises should be believed is laughed at by the Mayor. A power crisis is proclaimed and solving it with the Mayor’s own rat wheels seems like a good idea at the time until the Rats (Brooks Gillespie and Koveskali) organise and demand better working conditions, wages and cheese. From a political perspective I’d have preferred more to be made of the threat this poses to the Mayor’s personal supply of cheese and money, but it’s her fear and loathing of the Rats that brings the Pied Piper (Kerama) to offer his services – in rhyming couplets. And for a price. Which is promised.  

A song reveals how, as in the original tale, the Rats follow the Piper out of town, never to be seen again. But when the Mayor fails to keep her promise – fear not, parents, your children are not lured away; Maple and Abacus are piped off to who-knows-where, which of course renders the Mayor helpless. Thus she learns never to make a promise she does not intend to keep.  

The actors all delineate their characters very well and a gentle tone underlies the well-wrought drama. Mum returns with good news from the Council, concerning a playground, and, as always with KidzStuff shows, everyone’s smiling at the end.

As for the walk home – accompanying adults be warned: it may take a while if your children take control of the imaginary remote and instruct you to Pause and Rewind, so be prepared to counter with Play and Fast Forward. It’s a plus, of course, when experiencing a play feeds into holiday play in the hours and days that follow.

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