FringeReview Scotland 2025
Garden Party – Truman Capote’s Black and White Celebration
Kulturcio’k Live Art Collective
Venue: Space at Symposium Hall
Festival: FringeReview Scotland
Low Down
There is a loose structure around which the director, Alessia Siniscalchi, has created a performance piece which equally challenges and delights. The set is almost non-existent as we become it as the audience, as our performers flit between us, ask us questions, challenge us and tell us stories that are just wonderful to hear.
Review
This is an experience which, takes apart theatre, it ill behoves me to be critical. Why? Because, as Capote himself said, there is only one unpardonable sin, absolute cruelty. All else can be forgiven.
And so, I am not seeking forgiveness, because I loved this.
It is loosely based upon the persona of Capote and his Black and White parties at the Plaza Hotel in New York in the sixties, but it launches itself form the idea and scampers with it rather than gives us a narrative. As such it is important to note that Truman Capote gave a persona to the world which was filled with controversy. Controversy didn’t follow Capote unless he invited it to. And for Capote, an invitation was always obligatory. So here we have snippets of little conversations and of stories told to us one to one in our ears, challenges made that slowly merge into a performance of song and dance. a collective which just reminds us of being and existence, living in a moment whilst all else ravishes and eats itself without. It is gender challenging, sexually seductive and non-threatening in a scary way, as we are opened up to us simply by little chats, thoughts, views and opinions.
I sat back, relaxed and allowed myself to be hidden from the storm that was both physically and metaphorically outside of us.
The performers were what made it. All of them had a sense of security in their performance which just allowed you to feel that you were on their crest and their waves of enjoyment that allowed everybody to hold metaphorical hands and relax. It was like a collective massage of the mind.
The performance lasts as long as it requires to and although the ending was a little left open and we seemed confused over whether or not we were to go in or go out or stay in or what. It used live music and song interspersed and built creatively from a phrase oft repeated into a rhythm further repeated until the emergence of the art seemed organic and flawless.
It’s a cerebral dance that floats into your conscience with a languid lounge lizard style, and at any point during your Fringe, if you have an opportunity to indulge yourself in something that is a little wacky, perhaps challenging and certainly out there, then Truman Capote’s black and white celebration with this garden party, which is clearly not held in a garden, is one that I would really suggest you include in your itinerary.
I left, not with a spring in my step, not with a rush to get somewhere or indeed that demanding opportunities to provide me with some instant gratification, but a floating meandering that made me feel that was something worth experiencing. What I saw, who knows? What I wanted to take from it, who cares? What I got from it has stayed with me.
