It’s the roaring ’20s in New York – there’s pianos, there’s cordials and cigarettes, there’s flapper dresses, there’s fast wits and there’s eccentric artists. But what’s most dazzling about The Dazzle is its detailed depiction of the fraught relationship between New York’s most famous hoarding brothers, Homer and Langley Collyer.
Richard Greenberg’s writing is fast-paced, rich in imagery and witty, à la Noël Coward, and is served excellently by this production’s strong cast. Langley (Alec Ebert, Secret House and New Ghosts’ Albion) is a concert pianist with unruly hair and an incessantly precise manner of speaking – the kind of perfectionist who says a cellist is “a 64th tone flat”, and takes hours to play Chopin’s ‘Minute Waltz’ because “he can’t let go of the notes”. His brother Homer (Steve Corner, Home and Away and Attractive, Not Model Attractive’s Much Ado) is a stubbornly intelligent ex-admiralty lawyer with a booming voice, roaring laugh, and tall tales of his life and loves prior to becoming Lang’s “accountant”.
The Dazzle is spirited, well-paced, and wonderfully acted
Milly Ashmore (Meg Hyeronimus, Merak Physical Theatre’s Mortel) is the daughter of rich “swine”; fiercely independent, brash, and infatuated with Langley’s “dazzle”. Hyeronimus deserves a special mention for bringing depth to a criminally underutilised character in Milly, who is largely merely used as a plot device to develop tension between the brothers.
Direction by Jane Angharad (For the Grace of You Go I, New Ghosts Theatre Company and Secret House) draws out the electric chemistry between the three actors, using the intimate space at Meraki’s MainStage to full effect. (This is the first play to be staged at Oxford Street's new arts bar, and it's a promising debut.) Every moment is full of delicious detail – Homer cheekily turns his piercing gaze to the audience when frustrated by Lang’s eccentricities, Milly raises a pointed eyebrow as she slides next to the pianist on his stool, Lang tenderly fondles a piece of string and mutters to the ground as he tells the string’s origin story.
Set and costumes by Aloma Barnes are similarly detailed, with old musty books scattered about the stage (one audience member even fondly remarked on “the smell!”) and a red chaise longue taking pride of place. The gradual decay of the Collyer’s mansion, and lives, is heightened by their displaced shirt collars and the accumulating trash around them.
This production of the play forgoes an interval and instead has us watch the cast scatter paper, books, newspapers, food and drinks across the stage in the soft darkness, accompanied by Johnny Yang’s warped piano sounds. The second act turns quickly into darkness, showing the brothers eating Depression-era everything stew, and Langley dragging home plastic bags full of precious items. The clever call-backs to the first act are delightful, and immediately demonstrate growth in all of the characters. Their descent into mundanity and loneliness illustrates the deep sense of familial responsibility between Homer and Langley, and brings a poignancy to the well-reported story of their eventual demise.
This emotional depth almost overcomes Milly’s undercooked presence, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that her story is not properly resolved – with the end of it taking place off stage, eventually recounted in passing by Homer. It’s arguable that the conclusion of this play is that the brothers were right in isolating themselves from a world that doesn’t accept them, but this tender performance brings out the relationship between the brothers in a way that places them on a more level playing field. Langley is not better just because he requires care, they are both just trying to find ways to exist despite the rocks the world quite literally keeps throwing at them.
The Dazzle is spirited, well-paced, and wonderfully acted. Despite its shortcomings, it’s well worth watching for a stylish, theatrical, hilarious and feeling American gothic.
The Dazzle is playing on the MainStage at Meraki Arts Bar, Darlinghurst, until December 3, 2022. Get your tickets here.