WARHOLCAPOTE
A Non-Fiction Invention
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
An enthralling play based on lost tapes between two cultural giants and friends—Andy Warhol and Truman Capote.
In 1978 Andy Warhol and Truman Capote decided to write a Broadway play. Andy suggested that he record their private conversations over the period of a few months, and that these tapes would be the source material for the play. The tapes were then filed away and forgotten. Their play was never completed.
Now, award-winning director Rob Roth brings their vision to life after a years-long search to unearth the eighty hours of tapes between two of the most daring artists of postwar America. WARHOLCAPOTE, based on words actually spoken by the two men, is set in the ’70s and ’80s, toward the end of their close connection and not too long before their untimely deaths. Their special, complex friendship is captured by Roth with bracing intimacy as they discuss life, love, and art and everything in between. Every word in the play comes directly from these two 20th century geniuses. The structure of the conversations springs from Roth’s imagination.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 1978, Andy Warhol and Truman Capote set out to write a Broadway play by recording their conversations—it never happened, but Broadway director Roth (The Art of Classic Rock) here uses the recordings to fashion an inventive if uneven stage play that inevitably favors dialogue over plot. There are a number of exciting exchanges: "Friendship is the perfect sort of trust and belief," Capote says, and "If someone would really take care of Truman, he would be okay," Warhol muses. Many names are dropped: Liza Minnelli is "wild!"; Tennessee Williams is spotted in a Key West bar; and Jackie Kennedy is "the world's greatest female impersonator." Following the play comes some "bonus" transcript material consisting of the artists' thoughts on writing, sex, speaking engagements ("I do think one should do it once in a while," Capote says), and New York City ("It changes so quickly. It just changes like that," according to Warhol). Unfortunately, the back-and-forth often comes across as dry and navel-gazing on the page, lacking the dynamism of a live dialogue. Still, Capote and Warhol fanatics will relish "hearing" directly from the artists in this unique if not wholly successful endeavor.
