THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER Return to Home Page

Time Out
9-16 February 2000
Jonathan Gibbs
"As the narrator, David Toole is a stunning stage presence. Propelling and Tumbling himself about the bed with the simian strength of his arms, he provides moral prospective and ironic humour."

The Guardian
February 2000
Lyn Gardner
"As Edgar, friend to the doomed Roderick and his sister Madeline, David Toole swings between the spiralled headboard of the wrought iron bed like a restless, legless monkey. It makes you think of prison bars and zoos, as if he is always looking for an escape from that airless, decaying room but can never find one."

The Stage
17 February 2000
Nick Awde
"David Toole… is world weary yet sinister as Edgar the Friend."

The Times
7 February 2000
Hettie Judah
"The link between mind and body is further tweaked by placing David Toole, the most physically spectacular of the three actors, in the role of Edgar, the mild mannered, Everyman-ish outsider. Toole gives a stunning performance, and his easy going demeanour contrasts beautifully with Simon Startin's vivid Gothic portrayal of the moribund scion, Roderick Usher."

The Independent
February 2000
Paul Taylor
"It's a bold and witty stroke, for example, to cast David Toole, the most disabled and also the most compelling of the performers, in his role of Edgar, the gentle outsider and representative of "normality", Toole has no legs but a pair of dauntingly powerful arms which he uses to claw his way up the bed where the siblings writhe in incestuous passion and casually pass his torso from one to the other as though it were a parcel in some private game. The bed, which takes on an extraordinary emblematic force in this staging, can suck people into it like a quagmire, while at it's head is a wrought iron frame that resembles the gates to a prison."

Disability Now
March 2000
Nick Lewis
"David Toole…. With his strong presence he tries to stem the tide of decay."

Time Out
16-23 February 2000
"As the narrator, David is a stunning stage presence…"