MR. TOOLE
Anyone who’s read (not me) and admired A Confederacy of
Dunces, John Kennedy Toole’s
Pulitzer Prize-winning, picaresque novel of 1980, much of it about New Orleans,
should be interested in Vivian Neuwirth’s semi-autobiographical drama, Mr. Toole, directed by Cat Parker, now
being offered by the Articulate Theatre Company at 59E59 Theaters.
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| Ryan Spahn. All photos: Ken Howard. |
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| Linda Purl, Julia Randall, Stephen Schnetzer. |
Mr. Toole is
not so much about the book, whose contents are not discussed, but about the
back story of the book’s publication, as told largely through the memories of
Lisette (Julia Randall), a student at an all-girl’s Catholic college in New
Orleans, where Toole (Ryan Spahn) taught. The literary work
the play actually examines, to a degree, is T.S. Eliot’s “The
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” which Toole lectures on and which expresses
elements of Kennedy’s personality.
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| whRyan Spahn, Linda Purl. |
Neuwirth, who was fascinated by Toole ("He had such theatrical flair"), was inspired to write the play when she came
across his novel in a bookstore window and “took it home and devoured it.” She describes
the writer’s strained but loving relationships with his troubled father, John
(Stephen Schnetzer), and, more dramatically, his emotionally colorful mother,
Thelma (Linda Purl). His mostly painful encounters with her are sometimes reminiscent of those
between Tom and Amanda in The Glass
Menagerie.
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| Linda Purl, Thomas G. Waites. |
Central
to the nearly two hour, intermissionless story is the difficulty Toole had in
finding a publisher, his struggle to satisfy the demands of Robert Gottlieb, his editor at Simon
and Schuster, his resulting suicide when the book was rejected, and his mother’s
determination to get it published posthumously, which she did through the
intercession of famous writer Walker Percy (John Ingle).
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| John Ingle, Linda Purl. |
For personal reasons, I’m refraining from further
comments on the play and production, and suggest you look elsewhere for reviews. (Several other critics were there when I went.) I will add, however,
that one critic I briefly spoke to afterward told me she was “stunned” by the
play, particularly the depiction of the mother-son relationship. I’ll also confess
that, had I the time, I’d immediately get a copy of A Confederacy of Dunces
to see what Simon and Schuster missed and Louisiana State University Press
found in a book so admired it won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize.
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| Stephen Schnetzer, Linda Purl. |
Interestingly, so many projected film versions of the
book have been canceled that director Stephen Soderbergh, who headed one such
project, declared it “cursed.” On the other hand, Jeffrey Hatcher’s financially
successful theatre
adaptation starring Nick Offerman played in Boston in 2015. Hopefully, it
will come one day to New York so, if I never find the time to read it, I can stop being such a dunce and get a better idea of what all the fuss is about.
59E59 Theaters/Theater C
59 E. 59th St., NYC
Through March 15
