Every review of Tru agrees on one thing: Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s Truman Capote is the reason to see it in a phenomenal turn as the flawed writer. We asked him how he built it.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson has been living with Truman Capote longer than audiences at the Menier Chocolate Factory might assume. “I did Tru at a benefit reading in Morocco in 2024,” he says, casting his mind back to the play’s beginnings. “It was a beautiful performance, but I just scratched the surface of this play and of the character. It was a one night only thing. I was on book, it wasn’t memorised.”
That single performance left him wanting more: “After doing that, I really felt like there was just so much more to explore, and I wanted to embody the actual space of his living room, and I wanted audiences to really be able to do that dive with me.“
From a courtyard reading to a living room you can sit inside
Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Truman Capote in Tru. Image by Johan Persson
What started small has become something else entirely, as evidenced by the fact that we’re doing this interview with Ferguson after Tru’s press night performance at the Menier Chocolate Factory, a far cry away its humble beginnings.
“We took something that was very simple and that we just performed in a courtyard, and we turned it into something that is very elaborate and very environmental,” Ferguson muses. In between, there’s been a New York production that found its space in an Upper East Side mansion , a place clearly not originally built as a theatre, which he and the production then reimagined for the Menier.
“We were able to really take what we discovered there [in New York] and elevate it in many ways. We added more lighting. There was much more we could do with the set, much more we could do with the costumes, and we had great support from the Menier and from Paul Farnsworth specifically, our set designer. So it really feels like an elevated version of what we had in New York.”
Playing a real person, in his own words
The play is largely drawn from Capote’s own writing and interviews, a constraint Ferguson describes as a gift. “I find playing a real person to be incredibly challenging and restraining in the best possible ways,” he explains, when questioned on the matter.
“It’s nice to have parameters, it’s nice to have guardrails. There’s definitely a pool I’m working within, and to have it also be many of Capote’s own words is such a gift, because it’s the vernacular that he would have used, and there’s so much that he affirms about himself through his writing. So it’s been very freeing, but yes, it’s constraining in many ways.“
That tension is exactly what’s kept him from falling into impression. “Avoiding caricaturing Truman Capote has been the thing I most wanted to avoid.“
“I think [the role has been about] finding the humanity of Truman. It’s finding his truth, but allowing myself to shine through with him, not trying to hide myself beneath him: being true to the spirit of Truman Capote and also allowing myself to shine through that. I think that’s what’s allowed me to speak him out of the realm of caricature.“
A writer who knew what he was doing, and was still surprised by the fallout
Tru starring Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Photos by Marc J. Franklin
Tru is set just after the publication of Capote’s “La Côte Basque,” the Esquire excerpt that saw his high-society friends turn on him after he spilled a lot of their private affairs in print even if many were under thinly veiled pseudonyms.
While Ferguson doesn’t let Capote entirely off the hook, he doesn’t think the betrayal was calculated either.
“I feel like Truman definitely knew what he was doing,” he says after a pause. “but I also think he was surprised by the backlash that he received.“
“In his mind, any great writer would take notes about their friends. He makes excuses for himself, and sometimes his excuses are somewhat well founded. But I think he was surprised by the amount of backlash that he received, and how much he had to work to redeem himself.“
Not as alone as it looks
Tru began life as a solo show, and Ferguson carries the vast majority of its dialogue even now. But Charlotte d’Amboise’s largely wordless presence as the Swan has changed the experience of performing it entirely.
“I love having Charlotte on stage with me,” Ferguson smiles. “Recent versions of Truman Capote have really incorporated this world of him and his Swans, and the black and white ball, so having a taste of that in this play is very satisfying.”
“I love being in an ensemble. Being in a one-person show can be very lonely. Even though I have 99.9% of the dialogue in this play, having Charlotte on stage with me makes all the difference. Having that person on stage who has my back, who is also in that space with me, is so helpful.“
It’s a generosity that extends to the production itself. One of Ferguson’s favourite additions to this version is a line that didn’t exist in the original: Capote musing on what he’d want on his own tombstone.
“His first thought was ‘no comment,‘” Ferguson says. “Love that.”
Book tickets to Tru at the Menier Chocolate Factory here
Plan your visit to TruTheatre: Menier Chocolate Factory, until 14 November 2026Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes, no intervalAge guidance: 15+ 
Jesse Tyler Ferguson , West End Theatre
Julianna Barnaby,
West End Theatre (1 October 2026)
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Tru at Menier Chocolate Factory
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