THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
By Jay Presson Allen
Menier Chocolate Factory, London SE1 until November 14, 2026
www.menierchocolatefactory.com
If you attended Midnight at the Never Get, the last production at the Menier, you would have been bowled over by the transformation of the whole space into a ‘50s style New York cabaret club with the audience seated at mini tables and banquettes. Well, prepare to be wowed again, because this time designer Paul Farnsworth has outdone that by transforming the whole theatre, walls, and ceilings, into the Manhattan living room of Truman Capote (Apt 14B, 870 United National Plaza, it says on the invite) c. 1975. The audience are carefully seated in sofas and chairs as if you’re visiting the great man and the attention to detail in the ‘set decoration’ would put the immersive design of Punchdrunk to shame.
All of this is in aid of a one man show (almost) with Modern Family’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson playing the legendary writer, gossip and social butterfly, Truman Capote. Amazingly Capote has been portrayed since his demise in over 20 film and TV productions, something he would have cherished and perhaps proving Gore Vidal correct when, on hearing of the demise of his old nemesis, he quipped – “Good career move!”.
We meet Capote here at a relatively low ebb. It is Christmas 1975 and he’s reeling from the crisis caused by his publishing a scandalously indiscreet excerpt from his unfinished book, Answered Prayers, in Esquire magazine. It cost him his friendship with some of the key members of the elite social circle he so cultivated and adored. These were mainly very rich and mostly very bored society ladies such as legendary beauties Babe Paley (wife of the CBS head) and Nancy ‘Slim’ Keith. A recent TV pot boiler by Ryan Murphy Feud: Capote vs. The Swans will provide lots more detail on that whole debacle should you require it.
Director Rob Ashford has done sterling work here in punctuating what is a monologue with dramatic highlights. It was first performed on Broadway in 1989 with Robert Morse winning a Tony for it, and the script is by the acclaimed screenwriter Jay Presson Allen who deftly reshaped Capote’s published thoughts to capture both his deadly wit and the gnawing misery often underneath.
It’s mostly Tru gossiping on the phone, issuing orders to his florist or agent but also hilariously trying to remove from his line of vision a huge poinsettia plant – sent to him as a most unwelcome festive gift. He helps himself to bourbon, is distracted by photos and ornaments, and produces a cassette recorder, telling us that his biographer has requested that he begin dictating his memoirs into it. A useful theatrical device for us.
He departs for yet another party and returns later, worse for wear. All the while he plays records and the perfectly chosen tracks – Louis Armstrong, Ella, Sinatra and ‘The Swan’ enhance convivial atmosphere and perfectly evoke the era.
Ferguson’s performance is quietly masterful; it never resorts to impersonation (so easy with THAT signature voice), and he never presents Capote as someone to be pitied. For a gay man of his era, he was certainly no victim, and was having a ball, doing what he was most brilliant at: developing his writing, and cultivating friendships with the great and the good, most often lonely society folk. He was more than a gossip though he was a great chronicler of the time. He was a confidante and got the best out of them, a good example being his easy friendship with the tough Ava Gardner, who could drink him under a table.
A childhood anecdote about stealing his grandmother’s necklace introduces Charlotte d’Amboise, who has spent most of the evening floating about as an elegant specter. Finally, she speaks, in the guise of the con woman buying the jewelry. In costume designer Jaimal Odedra’s exquisite black and white party gown, she perfectly embodies glamour of her era, and d’Amboise of course is an acclaimed Broadway leading lady. A touch of Broadway sparkle in SE1.
The piece adds up to a witty and illuminating social history delivered by a great comic actor at the top of his game.
