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Pack rat puppets on stage at Clockworks!

Pack rat puppets on stage at Clockworks!
Photo by Richard Termine

And you thought the Collyer Brothers were just some mentally ill hoarders. Now, they’re also great theater.

The famous pack-rat duo is the spiritual influence behind a quirky new puppet show about hoarding.

With at least four television shows dedicated to the once-obscure psychosis, it’s no surprise that even puppeteers are jumping on the bandwagon.

After all, it’s a universal concern to city apartment dwellers.

“When you see my show, there will be something that you see where you’ll gasp and say ‘I do the same thing!’ ” said Carole D’Agostino, whose one-woman, 12-puppet production, “The Hoarding Show,” runs Sept. 22-24 at the Clockworks Theatre on Columbia Street.

The show comprises three segments: a monologue overview of hoarding involving a renter facing eviction; a shadow puppet show inspired by the Collyer saga; and a satire about the positive social aspects of hoarding.

“It’s a monologue encouraging you to hoard, like, ‘What do you mean you have no space, stack and stash it in your shower, it’s not like the water works!’ ” D’Agostino said. “I’m addressing the psychology of hoarding to make it appealing to non-hoarders.”

The Collyer segment, developed with OBIE Award-winning puppeteer Paul Zaloom, details the brothers’ bizarre, 130-ton collection — so massive that it ended up killing them.

D’Agostino spent at least 150 hours creating the hoarder’s home, creating minor details like individual magazines and letters that were fit for a puppet.

“I spent a lot of time on building, designing, researching and construction.” D’Agostino said, pointing out a set cluttered with flags, vases, crates, jars, bags and yarn, all scaled to the size of a puppet pack rat.

Oscar the Grouch would be right at home.

“The Hoarding Show” at the Clockworks Puppet Theatre [196 Columbia St, between Sackett and Degraw streets in Cobble Hill, (212) 614-0001], Sept. 22–Sept. 24, 8 pm. Tickets are $25. For info, visit www.cosmicbicycle.com.