In The Dazzle, now playing at Live Arts, two brothers' obsessions and eccentricities result in a lifestyle as chaotic as their over-stuffed mansion.
Loosely based on a true story, The Dazzle depicts the lives of Langley and Homer Collyer and the events preceding their demise.
Homer, a former lawyer, and the neurotic Langley, a potential concert pianist, were notorious pack-rats, who accumulated over 137 tons of assorted objects in thirty years. In fact, the clinical condition for hoarding enormous amounts of junk is called "Collyer Brothers Syndrome." Their unusual lives and deaths garnered headlines in the New York Times.
American playwright Richard Greenberg used his imagination and the Collyer brothers' story to write a play about their personalities and lives.
John Gibson directs the offbeat The Dazzle, starring Ray Nedzel (Homer), Cristan Keighley (Langley) and Francine Smith (Millie).
The set of the Collyer house uses all of the Live Arts' small UpStage space, and its exterior is eventually unhinged, transforming into the cluttered Collyer living room.
The Collyer brothers' clutter invades the audience, teetering on the stage's edge. The audience becomes more nervous when a huge candelabrum is raised over the stage. As a result, the Collyers' chaotic living conditions become very real for audience members.
At first, Homer appears onstage playfully juggling a ball and an orange. He then unhinges the set to reveal Langley playing an out-of-tune piano in the living room.
From the start, Homer establishes his caretaker role in his fraternal relationship: he describes himself as "my brother's accountant" and tries to gain financial stability by encouraging Langley's piano career. Ultimately, however, Langley's obsession with collecting "things" and his inability to let objects go halts his career.
In Langley's piano-playing prime, socialite Millie Ashmore takes a particular interest in him.
The brothers struggle with Millie's friendship. Langley tells Millie he likes her with possibly the funniest, yet most honest, pick-up line: "I find your money thrilling, and I'm fond of your hair."
Langley later tells Homer that Millie "has nothing to say but says it incessantly... she very nearly bores me. Yes, I love her."
Homer, however, recognizes Millie for her economic worth as he arranges a marriage between his brother and Millie.
The wedding day exposes the potential for a rocky marriage as Millie attempts to clean the house. She tries to throw away a piece of string, immediately enraging Langley. Millie disappoints Langley when she cannot appreciate his obsession with the "dazzlingly-colored" string he discovered as a young child.
Millie is the most confusing character of the play. Although her unconventional ways agree with the brothers' lifestyle, she does not reveal why she initiates their relationship.
Finally, brotherly love takes center stage as the Collyer siblings enter a downward spiral. Although Homer insists from the start that "fraternal love is a powerful thing," it is Langley who relates love's importance to the accumulation of junk: "What is duffle without love?"
Ultimately, more than junk keeps the brothers together.
And, more than acting keeps the play together.
Smith tries her best to portray her misunderstood character, but at times over-exaggerates Millie's mannerisms. Keighley is more successful as Langley, capturing his naïve and fanatical personality with intensity.
Nedzel probably has the most difficult character because Homer's shortcomings are not immediately evident. Nedzel accomplishes the subtlety of Homer with expert, nuanced performance.
The actors are fairly successful with their respective characters but do not always perform as an ensemble cast. For example, sometimes their timing seems unnatural. Nevertheless, the ambience established by the set, dramatic lighting and content of the play outshines any shortcomings.
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