Review: TRU Celebrates a Merry, Morbid Christmas at Pittsburgh Public

It's been a busy set of months for me- the last show I reviewed for BWW was in February, and the time in between has largely been spent in the production of my musical "Tink," which opens in the New York Musical Festival this July. There hasn't been a lot of down-time between my office job and my new theatrical job, so getting to see a show again has been a simple pleasure I enjoyed immensely. But all the same... boy, am I glad I came to this show after a good day, because this one can be a soul-crusher.

Tru, as written by Jay Presson Allen and directed by Ted Pappas, depicts American writer-cum-socialite Truman Capote (Eddie Korbich) in a perfect storm of personal problems circa the mid-1970s. He is going through a midlife crisis; he has painful family memories about the holidays; he can't seem to finish his gestating masterwork, the novel Answered Prayers (which Capote never DID finish in real life); and the chapters he has published as a preview of the novel have alienated him from every friend he has. Now, it's Christmas Eve Eve, and Capote talks to himself and to anyone on the phone who will listen as he prepares to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas alone.

In the hands of Eddie Korbich, who has made a career playing compelling and lovable grotesques, Capote becomes simultaneously larger than life and smaller. The quirks familiar to anyone even remotely aware of the caricature of Capote are all there- the hat hiding male pattern baldness, the flouncy mannerisms, the absurd little Droopy the Dog voice. As Capote careens wildly from high spirits to maudlin self-loathing, often over the course of a single minute, the play can sometimes feel like a perverse, mean-spirited Saturday Night Live character sketch. Until, that is, one remembers that Truman Capote actually did exist and actually did look, act and talk that way, like a slice of Southern Gothic literature come to life.

Though the play is set at Christmas, and features decorations and holiday music as an essential part of the story, there's nothing holly-jolly about the show. It's a good thing it's spring now and not winter, as Tru's bleak portrayal of seasonal depression would ruin Christmas if performed in the winter. Korbich and Pappas do an admirable job of bringing out the tension and suspense in the tight one-man show; though history tells us Capote lived another decade, it's hard to shake the feeling that the increasingly desperate, unhinged author is going to blow his brains out all over the Christmas tree any minute now.

Despite the darkness, the play manages to bring out the humor as well, highlighting Capote's famous wit, his camp sensibility, and his comfortableness in his own skin, both as a gay man and as a somewhat odd-looking human being. Korbich's Capote can laugh off almost anything, except loneliness. It's a little bit like looking into Pee-Wee's Playhouse after all the talking toys have left, and only the strange, epicene little man-child remains. Pappas's shows at the Public are always rewarding, entertaining and thought-provoking, and this one is no different. But you'd have to be something of an odd duck to consider this particular Christmas party a good time. "Jingle Bells," an increasingly neurotic Capote uses as his telephone goodbye. I don't think I'll ever hear that holiday classic with innocent ears again.

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