Tru

Tru is running at the Menier Chocolate Factory until 14 November, a revival of Jay Presson Allen's 1989 monologue. It first went on in New York at the House of the Redeemer; director Rob Ashford has brought it to London. The play is set in 1975, and it finds Truman Capote at a particularly rough patch. He'd just published a chapter of Answered Prayers, his unfinished magnum opus, and the savage way it depicted the super-rich had spooked much of his social circle. Allen drew the material largely from Capote's own correspondence, and she's said about 70 per cent of the script is his words verbatim.

From there, the monologue charts his whole arc: the rise from an unloved child in Monroeville, Alabama, to literary stardom and his entry into Manhattan's haute monde. It also looks at the destructive impulse that led him to squander his talent as a novelist and a pioneer of New Journalism, with landmarks like Breakfast at Tiffany's, In Cold Blood, and the Black and White Ball he hosted at the Plaza Hotel in 1966. It's a one-man show that works its way through the highs and the lows, and because so much of the dialogue comes from his own letters, it keeps his voice at the centre.

Paul Farnsworth's immersive set turns the Menier into a recreation of Capote's New York apartment, with vintage rugs, sofas and shelves of knickknacks, letters and books. It's a small, detailed space that puts you right in the room with him. Tickets are £43.25 to £48.25, and it runs until 14 November.