"the brothers slip into a life of seclusion"

May 25, 2006 performance reviewed by Pat Nichols.

THE COLLYER BROTHERS AT HOME
& PERIOD PIECE
by Mark St. Germain
Directed by Christopher Innvar

May 18 - June 4
Stage II - The Berkshire Athenaeum
1 Wendell Ave., Pittsfield
barringtonstageco.org

Langley and Homer Collyer descended from a well endowed family. Their father, a gynecologist and their mother a well educated woman with two sons raised the two sons.

Their parents eventually split and the two sons, both in their twenties, remained in their home with their mother. After the death of their mother they stayed on in the once gracious home.

However, the brothers began to slip into a life of seclusion where no one else entered. Worse they somehow accumulated what would eventually become 103 tons of an unimaginable collection of boxes, newspapers, furniture, animal skeletons, garbage.

Homer suffered blindness as a result of a stroke and depended on Langley to move him around, buy food and keep them isolated.

Langley built tunnels throughout the three story mansion, often so tight and narrow, he had to crawl in them to find stacks and stacks of old newspapers.

Brian Smiar, Homer Collyer, projects the image of strong personality, demanding as he copes with his blindness and his inability to move around, locked in his wheelchair, unable to communicate with others outside the family home. He, the older brother, takes the upper hand over the more compliant, Langley.

Langley, Robert Zukerman, meets others outside of the Collyer mansion, as he shops for the one hundred oranges Homer consumes each month as well as the newspapers Homer demands despite his blindness. An interesting moment happens when Langley tosses an orange to Homer who reaches out with his hand and captures the orange smack in his palm.

A sense of unresolved brotherly competition weaves through the play. At one point Langley throws out the possibility of bringing in a woman he has met to live with them. Homer adamantly refuses to allow it. Langley pushes to make it happen, even displays the woman’s photo but Homer, the older brother refuses and Langley, saddened complies.

Another reversion to childhood comes when the two brothers mimic the Wright brothers trying to get an airplane off the ground, Homer in the wheelchair/airplane, goggles on, Langley pushing him amidst the clutter, separated by the tight alleys used to move around. They appear like children at play.

The brothers rehash childhood experiences, the split of their parents the death of Homer’s pet bird. They fight but they reconcile. The entire play takes place in one area of the mansion. They have fallen behind in some payments, they refuse to address the issue, utilities get shut off the years pass.

The room fills out the stage, packed full of boxes, a piano, piles of newspapers and carefully constructed tunnels where the two brothers lived out their lives. Both Brian Smiar, Homer and Robert Zukerman, Langley, do a fine job of portraying two grown men, brothers still struggling with the issues that arise in many families but often go unresolved.

Julianne Boyd, artistic director, said her company creates theaters over and over in different places as they present their productions and this time she drew together the artistic group to transform the auditorium at the Berkshire Athenaeum into a theater, complete with a stage, stairs leading down to the front of the theater, lighting, and comfortable seats.

Mark St. Germain.......Playwright
Christopher Innvar.....Director
Renee Lutz.............Stage manager
Guy Lee Bailey.........Costume Designer
Brian Prather..........Set Designer
Benjamin Courtney......Lighting Designer
Randy Hansen...........Sound Designer