The Pied Piper of Memelin

...is a play I wrote for a college competition recently, and it won 3rd place in the competition. It’s a script flip on the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

The Pied Piper of Memelin

Opening Narration

Narrator: In this town, parents work hard to buy phones for their children. Children love screens more than people. Everyone loves... but no one connects. Until today...

Scene 1: The Call to Action

Mayor's office

Mayor: (Looking at photos of children playing, then out the window) I remember when children used to climb the old tree in the town square. Now it just... waits. Empty swings move only when the wind pushes them.

(Picks up a photo) Carol's mother came crying to me yesterday. "She won't look at me," she said. "I cook her favorite meals, and she eats with one hand, scrolling with the other."

(Standing, determined) These parents sacrifice everything - working long hours, saving every rupee - thinking they're showing love. But their children slip away like morning mist.

(Resolved) No more. I'm calling a community meeting. It's time we all remembered what love actually looks like.

Transition to community hall

Scene 2: The Gathering Storm

Community hall. Banner: "RECONNECT: BRINGING FAMILIES TOGETHER"

Mayor: Welcome, everyone. I've called you here because I see families hurting. I see love that's lost its way---

Parent: (typing frantically) Sorry, Uncle, just responding to my boss... deadline today...

Carol: (not looking up from phone) Whatever. Can we make this quick?

Mayor: (growing frustrated) This is exactly the problem! Mrs. Das, you complain Carol won't talk to you, but you're both doing the same thing right now!

Carol's Mother: (sheepishly putting phone away) I... I was just checking work messages...

Mayor: (voice rising) You work yourselves to exhaustion buying them gadgets, then wonder why they prefer the gadgets to you!

(Suddenly, doors burst open dramatically. PIPER enters with glowing ring light and speaker)

Piper: Did someone say... connection problems?

(Everyone looks up, intrigued)

Piper: I couldn't help but overhear. Families struggling to connect? Children lost in digital worlds? Parents working themselves to death trying to show love through screens and data plans?

Mayor: And you are...?

Piper: The Pied Piper of Memelin, at your service. I specialize in digital solutions. For just one thousand rupees, I can solve your technology troubles forever.

Parent: How exactly?

Piper: (smirking) Let me give you a free demonstration first...

(He pulls out his phone, swipes dramatically. Every device in the room starts glitching, playing an eerie digital tune. The children's eyes glaze over, and they stand like zombies)

Parent: What's happening to them?!

Carol's Mother: Carol! Carol!?, can you hear me?

Piper: I'm fixing your problem. No more screen addiction. No more ignoring parents.

Mayor: This isn't what we wanted! This is wrong!

Piper: (voice turning cold) You wanted a quick fix. You wanted someone else to solve what you created. Well, here it is.

(The hypnotized children, including Carol, start walking toward the exit in a trance-like state)

Mother: (rushing forward) Stop! Please! What are you doing to them?

Piper: I'm giving you exactly what you asked for - children who aren't addicted to screens.

(The children are in zombie-like state. Parents are trying to get through to them but seem unable to)

Scene 3: The Heart Remembers

Town marketplace in chaos. Overturned stalls, parents running frantically

Parent: (wailing) My son! He may spend all day on Instagram, but he's still my baby!

Carol's Mother: (desperate) My Carol! I work twice as hard just so she can have a decent life, and now she's gone!

(Enter GRANDPA, calm and steady, with his walking stick)

Grandpa: Oh, for heaven's sake. All this crying and wailing, and no one's doing anything useful.

(The PIPER enters triumphantly with the zombie-like children, including Carol)

Piper: Behold! Your children, finally free from their digital prisons! No more addiction, no more ignoring their families.

Grandpa: (unimpressed) Free? They look more trapped than ever, you glow-stick clown.

Piper: At least they're not staring at screens anymore.

Grandpa: No, now they're staring at nothing at all. That's not connection, that's control.

(He uses his walking stick as a weapon pointing it at the Piper)

Grandpa: You know what your problem is, young man? You think connection is about controlling signals. But real connection? That's about opening hearts.

*(Quick as lightning, he hits the Piper's phone with his walking stick, causing the Piper to drop it. The phone falls and breaks).

Children: (confused, blinking) What... where are we?

Carol: (immediately furious) Hey! Where's my phone?! This is so unfair! I was about to beat my high score! You adults are so stupid! I hate this place!

Piper: (genuinely hurt and confused) Why are you acting like this? After everything your mother does for you? She works twice as hard just so that you have a decent life!

Carol: (defiant) So? That's what mothers and fathers are supposed to do! I didn't ask to be born!

Piper: (looking around, really seeing the parents' pain for the first time) Look at her, Carol. Really look. She didn't buy you those things to get rid of you. She bought them because she loves you, and she thought... she thought that's how to show it.

(Carol slowly turns and sees her mother. Carol's Mother has tears streaming down her face, looking exhausted and defeated)

Carol: (her anger starting to crack) Ma...?

Carol's Mother: (stepping forward tentatively) My dear, I know I messed up. I thought giving you everything you wanted was the same as giving you what you needed.

Carol: (voice getting smaller) I... I didn't mean to... I just... (looks down) I forgot how to be happy without it.

(Carol slowly walks to her mother. After a moment's hesitation, she falls into her embrace)

Carol: I'm sorry, Mom. You work so hard for me.

(Other children start moving toward their own families)

Piper: (watching this, something changing in his expression) I... I thought I was helping. I wanted families to communicate better, but...

Grandpa: You gave them what they thought they wanted, instead of what they actually needed.

Parent: (to other implied family) Can we learn to have dinner together tonight? Like, actually together?

Carol's Mother: (still holding Carol, crying) I would love that so much.

Carol: (still in her mother's arms, to the Piper) Maybe... maybe you could help us figure out how to use our phones without losing each other?

Piper: (smiling genuinely for the first time) I... I'd like that very much.

Mayor: (to everyone) Maybe we all need to learn that love isn't about giving someone everything they want, but about giving them what they need to grow.

Final Narration

Narrator: And so the town learned that technology isn't the enemy of connection---disconnection is. That love isn't measured in megabytes or screen time, but in moments when we truly see each other.

The children still use their phones, and the parents still work hard. But now they also have something else: the memory of what it feels like to look into each other's eyes and remember why they matter.

The curtain falls as families remain seated, having dinner together surrounded by warmth and connection.

The End

By Shailin H. Lyngdoh