Review: "Mr. Toole" Remembers a Literary Voice Nearly Lost
Mr. Toole Written by Vivian Neuwirth Directed by Cat Parker Presented by Articulate Theatre Company in association with Lagniappe Productions at 59E59 Theaters 59 E. 59th St., Manhattan, NYC February 28-March 15, 2020 Ryan Spahn. Photo by Ken Howard When we first saw Vivian Neuwirth's Mr. Toole , which revolves around the personal and literary struggles—if one can separate the two—of A Confederacy of Dunces author John Kennedy Toole, it was as a short play in the 2014 EstroGenius festival, when we called it a powerful piece and said that it would be easy to imagine as a full-length production . Now, that full-length production has arrived, with a greatly expanded Mr. Toole making its debut at 59E59 Theaters on the fortieth anniversary of the posthumous publication of Toole's Pulitzer Prize-winning comic novel of New Orleans. Mr. Toole explores the messy intersections of loss and preservation, resilience and despair, through the fight for a literary legacy. N...