First Performed in 1991 at the Birmingham Rep.

 

Creatives

Written by Mark Vibrans

Adapted by Anthony Clark

Directed by Anthony Clark

 

Reviews:

 

"...Clark the director provides pace and spectacle, especially in a first act finale where the Piper's coat train flies up and outwards to show a multitude of dead rats. Clark the writer though seems bound up with Brecht, whose 'Threepenny Opera' he directed a few months ago. So, the piper becomes a hood, robbing the rich of black-market-priced bread to give it to the hungry and demanding as the cost for his help that the council help the poor. They are bumbling and corrupt bureaucrats, capitalist to the point they will up the Piper's price as they understand money values, but refuse to spend anything on the needy. Finally they don't even pay the Piper needing the cash for election bribes. Yet, while human sympathy reside outside the city walls with the destitute, it is the rich boy's pampered pet rat that carries the weight of rodent sympathy. Clark is too wise to condescend to his audience, but this time round he seems intent on a crash political education course." The Times Educational Supplement.

 

"The adaptation is by Anthony Clark with music by Mark Vibrans, a team with a good record in this genre. There is no shortage of production values in terms of cast, a skillfully deployed team of children and an elaborate stage setting by Patrick Connellan." Sunday Times

 

"...there's no doubt about his skills as a director in staging spectacle and creating magical moving moments... The show has a very classy fee!" The Guardian