Urban Folklore Generates ‘The Dazzle’

In 1947, the bodies of two brothers, Homer and Langley Collyer, were excavated from the detritus that had accumulated for decades in their three-story brownstone on 5th Avenue in Harlem.

In urban folklore, they became the patron saints of packrats--they died so that their junk might live.

Imagining what the Collyers were like as young adults in the early 20th century, Richard Greenberg wrote “The Dazzle,” now at South Coast Repertory.

To a large extent, the play is about passivity--the clutter kept piling up, without the brothers doing anything about it.

Passivity isn’t an unfamiliar theme on the modern stage (“Waiting for Godot,” anyone?), but it always poses a challenge for a medium that traditionally depends on action.

“The Dazzle” is an intriguing attempt to meet that challenge, blessed with Greenberg’s customary ear for finely turned phrases from the mouths of eccentrics. But ultimately it doesn’t quite do the job.

As depicted by Greenberg, the culture of the Collyer household is dictated by the younger brother, Langley (JD Cullum), who is dazzled by his sensory reactions to whatever crosses his path. He is likely to fall in love with any new object he touches--although he might easily forget about it, as fresher objects grab his attention.

It’s difficult to fully visualize this condition on a stage--when Langley holds a lacrosse stick, for example, we can’t see it closely enough to spot, let alone appreciate, the details that he finds so attractive. This wouldn’t be as problematic in a movie or even in a novel, with its opportunities for long descriptions.

Still, Cullum’s wide-eyed expressions and his moments of foggy introspection convey glimmers of his perspective.

Langley occasionally makes money as a pianist, but he tends to break previously made commitments because of his obsession with newer phenomena.

Langley’s career also is stymied by his inclination to play the music very slowly, to savor every moment--one aspect of his condition that we can appreciate in the theater.

For him, performing “The Minute Waltz” in a minute would have been sacrilegious.

Homer Collyer apparently spent some time working as an attorney. But by the time the play opens, he’s already serving primarily as his brother’s keeper--a role his late mother asked him to perform.

As played by Matt Roth, Homer is no self-effacing wallflower. He’s the more conventionally handsome of the brothers and a master of acerbic retorts.

Unlike his brother, he worries about the future--which raises the obvious question, not fully answered: Why does he allow all that junk to keep growing?

A few lines in the play indicate that Greenberg simply wants us to accept this as an unexplainable fact of life, but that’s easier said than done.

The brothers aren’t quite polar opposites. Although most of the clutter is Langley’s, the stacks of newspapers are Homer’s.

Unlike Langley, who is too intoxicated with tangible objects and immediate sounds to spend time reading about things secondhand, Homer enjoys reading--a dangerous habit in a house like this.

Greenberg introduces a third character, the rebellious socialite Milly Ashmore (Susannah Schulman), who is attracted to Langley. She has been to Vienna for psychiatric treatment and probes for the reasons why Langley is the way he is, without much success. Greenberg wants the roots of Langley’s personality to remain a mystery.

But that doesn’t deter Milly from pursuing Langley almost into marriage--and then, after time passes, from considering a similar offer from Homer, who is feeling panicky about his wasted life.

In the second act, we learn a dark secret about Milly’s past. The revelation seems oddly incongruous, in light of Greenberg’s unwillingness to fill us in on most of the background of the two brothers.

Mark Rucker’s staging respects the unhurried pacing of the brothers’ life while still managing to build momentum, especially during the second act.

Darcy Scanlin’s set grows as well, suggesting the final height of the clutter with a back wall display, thereby avoiding blocked sight lines.

This is the last scheduled show in South Coast’s current Second Stage, which has been the home of some dazzling theater over the years. The larger Argyros Stage, now under construction next door, will take over as the theater’s new second stage next fall.

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“The Dazzle,” South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tuesdays-Sundays, 7:45 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends April 28. $27-$51. (714) 708-5555. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.

JD Cullum...Langley Collyer

Matt Roth...Homer Collyer

Susannah Schulman...Milly Ashmore

By Richard Greenberg. Directed by Mark Rucker. Set by Darcy Scanlin. Costumes by Nephelie Andonyadis. Lighting by Geoff Korf. Music and sound by Karl Fredrik Lundeberg. Stage manager Jamie Tucker.