Theater Three is presenting Tru, the one-man show based on the life of novelist Truman Capote. I'm not sure why.
While Capote was a renowned, best-selling author, his life story, as written by Jay Presson Allen, is the worst playscript (or at least the first act of it) I have ever had the misfortune to witness. It was so bad I had decided to leave at intermission, but when Jaston Williams as Capote lit up his second foul smelling cigarillo not five feet from my seat, I beat a hasty retreat about five minutes prior to the interval Fortunately I was sitting next to the door.
This is quite unfortunate since Williams is a fine actor. I had the good fortune to see all of the Tuna plays he wrote with Joe Sears and Ed Howard and co-starred in, some of them numerous times. In the part of Act I of Tru which I saw, Williams did not disappoint.
The set designed by T3 co-founder Jac Alder was superb, realistically evoking the type of New York apartment one would imagine Capote would inhabit. The costumes by Bruce Richard Coleman based on the design of Susan Branch were up to Coleman's usual high standards. Not sure whose idea Capote's red pumps were, but they certainly stood out.
Williams as Capote talks about his early life and then name drops all the famous people he knew. He mentions that he was "famous for being famous" and that "fame is only good for one thing; they'll cash your check in small towns." He tells of his alcoholism, his stint in rehab centers, and his homosexuality. I wonder why Ms. Allen, the playwright, thought anybody would care.
