The first production images have been released from Tru at the Menier Chocolate Factory, with Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Truman Capote and Charlotte d’Amboise alongside him.
A Panama hat, round dark glasses and a fur coat thrown over a velvet jacket. The first production images from Tru put Jesse Tyler Ferguson in the middle of Truman Capote’s cluttered Manhattan apartment, and the camera stays close: a telephone receiver at his ear, a copy of In Cold Blood held up to the room, both arms flung wide in a dressing gown. The photographs are by Johan Persson.
The play is in previews at the Menier Chocolate Factory and opens on 27 September, running until 14 November. Charlotte d’Amboise appears as The Swan, and her casting was announced earlier this month.
Jay Presson Allen’s play was first staged in 1989 and is drawn entirely from Capote’s own words. It finds him alone in his New York apartment in December 1975, reeling from a crisis that has cost him the friendship of the elite social circle he adored, and confronting the consequences of his most scandalous work. The Menier staging follows a New York run earlier this year.
Rob Ashford directs, with set design by Paul Farnsworth, costume design by Jaimal Odedra, lighting by Jamie Platt and sound by Adam Cork. Kate Tydman is associate director. The Menier Chocolate Factory presents the production in association with Seaview, OHenry Productions, Mickey Liddell & Pete Shilaimon and A Dog Named Beckett Productions.
Ferguson is also on stage at the London Palladium, playing King Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar, and his London credits include Stephen Sondheim’s final work, Here We Are, at the National Theatre. He won a Tony Award for his performance in Take Me Out on Broadway, and played Mitchell Pritchett across eleven seasons of Modern Family.
Press performances begin on 24 September. Tru runs at the Menier Chocolate Factory until 14 November 2026.
