If you go ...

Chicago renters often go through hair-pulling ordeals trying to find the perfect apartment in the perfect neighborhood surrounded by people perfectly suited to their own lifestyles — all at the right price. It can be a ride full of financial negotiations and manipulations, dashed hopes and sacrifices, all to secure a small swath of city to call home. The ritual is one that almost everyone experiences at some point in life, but does it make good drama?

In the hands of Walkabout Theater, the answer is a resounding “yes.”

Walkabout’s new production “The Pigeons” wraps renters’ ups-and-downs into a tight, wacky farce that delivers genuine laughs and incisive commentary on the ambiguous attitudes towards urban gentrification.

Penned by local actor and playwright Joe Zarrow, “The Pigeons” unfolds in an eclectic locavore café in West Town, where two friends, Martin and Lloyd, scramble to land a pigeon-infested apartment in the building above after being thrown out of their old place by Martin’s ex-girlfriend. Their off-the-cuff plan ensnares the artsy, idealistic café owner; an amped-up frat-boy (appropriately named Chad); a gum-smacking real estate agent who mixes business with pleasure; and an enthusiastic Polish woman who slings homemade pierogies (and much more).

Martin and Lloyd’s hair-brained scheme forces them to confront their own identities and their place within a community of hipsters, artists and dreamers slowly being pushed out as moneyed folk move in — a cycle repeating itself in a neighborhood with Eastern European and Latin American origins.

Director Cassy Sanders stages “The Pigeons” inside Swim Café, a coffee and sandwich spot on Chicago Avenue in West Town, where the action unfolds around and nearly on top of the audience, who are seated at the café’s tables. The disadvantages of such a site-specific production are apparent immediately. The actor’s voices fade in the din of overhead ceiling fans and the space’s natural echo. The café’s layout often obscures actors from the audience as well.

Amazingly, the negatives become absolute positives as the play progresses. The close proximity, background noise and strained sightlines bring a voyeuristic quality to the piece, pulling the audience into conversations and actions that feel privileged. Even when the actors’ break the invisible fourth wall to address the crowd with humorous asides or the play descends into pratfall insanity, the illusion is never broken.

“The Pigeons” is blessed with a cast that never misses a beat. The chemistry and timing are impeccable, particularly between leads Kevin Crispin and Keith Neagle as Martin and Lloyd, respectively. Their verbal interplay, roughhousing, and brutal honesty has a natural quality — the kind only exhibited by close friends.

But the play belongs to Emma Stanton as the oddball, committed-to-local-fare café proprietor Veronica. She’s a radiant force, tough and tenacious with a spirit as fiery as her unkempt mess of red curls and homemade neo-punk attire. This is all a mask, of course. Underneath the hard-edge is a vulnerable, but earnest woman trying her best to make a mark while staying true to her ideals. Stanton projects these layers beautifully, using expressive doe eyes to say millions.