Play Review: “The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side”

It may be almost 40 years now since “The Age of Aquarius” dawned on Broadway, but the theatre’s love affair with all things alternative is still going strong. Its latest send up to the freedom and inhibition that comes with living “La Vie Bohéme” arrives in the form of The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side, now rocking Los Angeles’ Matrix Theatre on Melrose with a radically ideological thrust that promises to challenge everything its audience members believe about love, devotion, and what can constitute a family.

Written and directed by Derek Ahonen, founder and resident playwright of the Amoralists Theatre Company in New York City, The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side tells the tale of four young adults operating a barter-style vegan restaurant and living in a polyamorous, new-age “tribe,” an unconventional family defined by free love, open sex, and — most importantly — loyalty and devotion to the group.

Through the work of the show’s stunning ensemble cast, the Pipers spring to life onstage. Billy (Adam Brooks) is a drug-addicted revolutionary, constantly fretting over his sporadically published anarchist journal and the possibility of heading south to aid a bloody insurrection; Wyatt (Jordan Tisdale) struggles with a constant, existential fear of death and the unknown… when he’s not destroying Billy’s record collection over a few lost scratch-off lottery tickets; the teenage Dawn (Heather Mertens) escapes a household torn apart by abuse to sing obscure Rolling Stones songs on the city streets for money. Dear (Agatha Nowicki), a former lawyer, is unmistakably the tribe’s mother figure, extolling wisdom and encouraging free emotional expression in between running the vegan restaurant above which the Pipers make their home.

The Pied Pipers functions simultaneously as both an unrelenting manifesto and a gripping character drama. Conflict arrives in the form of Billy’s younger brother Evan, a college-aged aspiring sports journalist and ideological conservative (played to frat-tastic perfection by a cocky Ben Reno) whom the Pipers attempt to convert to their way of thinking by staging an impromptu “bed-in” style interview. The Pipers seem to have all of the answers, matching each of their detractor’s skeptical dismissals with compelling arguments that favor a reliance on small self-sustaining tribes rather than larger apathetic global communities in which a starving child is nothing more than a statistic, all while explaining the complex inner workings of a four-way relationship that is both sexual and romantic.

But for all of the Pipers’ faith in their ability to take care of each other, they are ultimately people that are individually falling apart. While Billy projects his own disappointment in himself onto his conservative family, Wyatt battles paralyzing panic attacks and Dawn dreads the possibility of the tribe one day coming to an end. Even the self-actualized Dear’s commitment to the tribe is tested by an eventual offer of an easier life. Furthermore, a controversial business decision by the group’s eccentric benefactor Donovan (a manic Patrick Scott Lewis) threatens the Pipers’ very existence as they know it. While the Pipers’ tribal lifestyle may be as virtuous as they claim it to be, there’s something a lot simpler at work here too: these are people that need each other.

The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side is a three-act thrill ride of visceral performances, twisting dialogue, and heart-wrenching emotional turns. Its irreverent onstage nudity may make you laugh, and the impossible decisions faced by its characters may make you cry; either way, the Pipers are guaranteed to be a hit with any theatre-lover looking to open their mind, challenge their preexisting ways of thinking, and change their life.

The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side is now playing as a limited engagement from April 16 to May 24, 2015 at the Matrix Theatre on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, California. Performances run Thursday, Friday, and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m. The Matrix Theatre Company’s production of The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side is presented by Alex Zoppa, Henry Reno, and Joseph Tuccio. Tickets are available now via Brown Paper Tickets.