FAMILY : ‘Pied Piper’ Leads Audience Into Parts of Hamelin

LAKE FOREST —  Question: What are small and noisy, often travel in packs and are capable of throwing even the most genial adult into a tizzy?

The answer could be either kids or rats. In the Paper Bag Players production of “The Pied Piper,” it’s both.

Directed by Bunny Lawson, this hourlong adaptation by Shubert Fendrich and Patrick Rainville throws young theatergoers into the middle of the action, calling them from their seats to play a number of roles, including cheering townspeople, schoolchildren and the aforementioned vermin. Arrive early, and the cast will even slap a pair of whiskers and a wiggly pink nose on young thespians for no extra charge.

Final performances of “The Pied Piper” are Saturday and Sunday in the multipurpose room of Rancho Canada Elementary School. (The company’s previous shows were held in a Mission Viejo costume rental shop, but the troupe had to relocate because of zoning changes, Lawson said. No word yet on whether future shows will be staged at Rancho Canada.)

Like all Paper Bag Players shows, “Pied Piper” features a cast of teen-age and adult actors, many of them with years of acting experience. Audience participation is big with this troupe, so scripts are often tweaked a bit to accommodate that--a process that works far better in this show than it did in the troupe’s last production, “The Jungle Book.”

Kids get into the thick of things even before the show begins; audience members are invited to arrive at noon with their own bag lunch, to nosh and chat with the actors as they apply their makeup. Willing audience members may even find themselves being made up as rats.

Fendrich and Rainville’s script sticks fairly close to the original story of a town (Hamelin) overrun by rats that are ultimately charmed away by a traveling piper, who later plays a nasty trick on the townspeople when they try to stiff him. The story is punched up with some contemporary humor, and, thanks to Lawson’s deftness and the actors’ ability to think on their feet, the interaction between the cast and kids comes off smoothly, even when the volunteers get a tad out of hand.

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Keary Keefer and Michelle Fincher clicked as the piper and his servant, Gertrude, who are traveling through Hamelin en route to “fame and fortune.” Fincher’s Gertrude is clever and quick and a real people person, while Keary’s piper is a bit of a snob. Actually, he’s a real jerk, but as in all good fairy tales, he corrects himself by the end of the story, a transformation that Keefer makes smoothly.

Betsey Sebade and husband Jim Lawson as the warring schoolmarm and mayor are a nice contrast too; she’s a peppery, take-charge sort (she also wields a mean ruler), he’s a weak-kneed politician more likely to form a committee than to take any real action against the rats.

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* “The Pied Piper,” Rancho Canada Elementary School multipurpose room, 21801 Winding Way, Lake Forest. Saturday and Sunday at noon. Closes Sunday. $5. (714) 581-5402. Running time: One hour, 10 minutes. (In order of appearance):

Jim Lawson: Mayor of Hamelin

Betsey Sebade: Veronika

Michelle Fincher: Gertrude

Jeff Mahacek: Bruno

Marla Weingart: Gretchen

Keary Keefer: the Pied Piper

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A Paper Bag Players production, directed by Bunny Lawson. Book by Shubert Fendrich and Patrick Rainville. Set: Bunny and Jim Lawson, Gail Lattime. Costumes: Michelle Fincher, Ronnie Husson, Bunny Lawson and Masquerade Village. Stage manager: Marge Hubers.