Synopsis

What exactly happened in that Fifth Avenue mansion? This darkly fascinating true story is a murder mystery about the reclusive Collyer brothers who weren’t just rich, they were filthy rich. Langley Collyer is dead in his room. Homer Collyer is missing. And all of New York is shocked at what the police find inside the home of these wealthy brothers: Junk, trash, clutter -- crammed everywhere, piled up to the ceilings. What turned these old-money aristocrats into compulsively hoarding shut-ins? Who killed Homer Collyer? Where’s Langley? And what does their relentless obsession reveal about their lives -- and souls? In CLUTTER: The True Story of the Collyer Brothers Who Never Threw Anything Out, playwright Mark Saltzman writes a compelling tale of these notorious brothers whose unfolding story held New Yorkers spellbound. And perhaps it’s a story about us or someone close to us - how much accumulation is too much?

Laguna Playhouse – World Premier, 2003

LOS ANGELES TIMES - Don Shirley
A packrat’s motto: “This could be worth something someday.” Mark Saltzman’s new play Clutter is already worth a lot. As staged by Rick Sparks for the Colony Theatre, this examination of the Collyer brothers – the world’s most famous packrats – is shamelessly entertaining... But Saltzman doesn’t depict the Collyers as completely weird. By the end, he makes a broader point about the common human insecurities that surely contributed to the Collyers’ problems... richly comic... brilliant...
SELECTED AS L.A. TIMES “CRITIC’S CHOICE”

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER - Ed Kaufman
Mark Saltzman’s pseudo-documentary murder mystery, Clutter is charming delightful and wonderfully well-staged... He has written an entertainment that is wise, generous and witty.

Patrick Richwood and Ed F Martin

BURBANK LEADER (L.A. TIMES BURBANK SECTION) - Maurice Barnfather
It is Saltzman’s writing and Rick Sparks’ compelling production, deploying comedy to tackle a subject one would expect to find approached with hushed naturalism, that give this play tensile strength and the power of an impassioned fable. What Saltzman does, with extraordinary humorous compassion, is to use the tale of the Collyer Brothers to also portray the same strained relationship of the two brother cops involved in the unfolding drama... Clutter is a great play.

KABC - Cynthia Citron
A riveting play... As a study in bizarre behavior and obsession, the play is engaging and engrossing.

BACK STAGE WEST- Lee Spindle
Much entertainment and food for thought...hilarious...an intoxicatingly theatrical milieu...scores a clean dramatic sweep.