A genius in freefall: inside the tragic true story behind Truman Capote play Tru starring Jesse Tyler Ferguson

Few writers of the 20th century burned as brightly, or fell as far, as Truman Capote. The author who gave the world Holly Golightly and redefined true crime spent his final years exiled from the glittering high-society world he had spent a lifetime charming his way into. This autumn, that extraordinary downfall comes to the stage, as Jesse Tyler Ferguson brings his acclaimed performance as Capote to the Menier Chocolate Factory in Jay Presson Allen’s Tru.

Who was Truman Capote?

Truman Capote was one of the most celebrated and controversial American writers of his generation. He shot to fame with Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1958, the novella that would later become the beloved Audrey Hepburn film, before cementing his reputation with In Cold Blood in 1966 — a chilling account of a real-life Kansas murder that pioneered the “non-fiction novel” and remains one of the best-selling true-crime books ever written.

But Capote was as famous for his personality as his prose. Witty, waspish and irresistibly charming, he became a fixture of New York’s social elite, counting among his closest confidantes the glamorous high-society women he affectionately dubbed his “swans.” His legendary 1966 Black and White Ball was hailed as the party of the century.

The scandal that brought him down

Capote’s fall was as dramatic as his rise. In 1975, Esquire published “La Côte Basque 1965”, an excerpt from his long-promised, never-finished novel Answered Prayers, a thinly veiled roman à clef that spilled the most intimate secrets of the very women who had trusted him most.

The betrayal was total. Overnight, the swans turned on him, and Capote found himself frozen out of the only world he had ever truly wanted to belong to. He never recovered professionally or personally, and spent his remaining years battling the addictions and loneliness that would contribute to his death in 1984, aged just 59.

What is Tru about?

*Tru starring Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Photos by Marc J. Franklin*

It’s this moment of crisis that Tru captures. Set in Capote’s New York apartment just before Christmas 1975, in the raw aftermath of the Answered Prayers fallout, the play finds the writer alone, reflecting on his life, his career and the friendships he has destroyed, while wrestling with his loneliness, his addictions and his own complicated heart.

Drawn entirely from Capote’s own words, Jay Presson Allen’s play is by turns funny and heartbreaking: an unflinching, intimate portrait of a singular artist at his lowest ebb, and a rare chance to encounter one of literature’s most fascinating figures up close.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Truman Capote

Bringing Capote to life is Jesse Tyler Ferguson, the Tony Award-winning, five-time Emmy-nominated actor best known and loved as Mitchell Pritchett in Modern Family. Ferguson reprises the role he originated earlier this year in an acclaimed, sell-out immersive production in New York, and comes to the Menier fresh from a scene-stealing guest turn as King Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar at the London Palladium.

The production is directed by Tony Award-winner Rob Ashford (A Streetcar Named Desire), who first worked with Ferguson on a one-night staged reading of the play in Tangier in 2024, and describes the actor’s Capote as “mesmerizing.”

Tru at Menier Chocolate Factory

Menier Chocolate Factory, London

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