Following a successful Award-winning run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025, Kulturscio’k Live Art Collective’s immersive true-crime cabaret Garden Party – Truman Capote’s Black and White Celebration arrives in London at the Canal Cafe in May!
This immersive experience is inspired by Truman Capote’s 1966 Black and White Ball and inspired by Capote’s La Côte Basque 1965. Putting the performers and audience members in the heart of the grand ball, blending live music and dance, the experience offers a chance to join Capote’s exclusive event. We were fortunate to be given the opportunity to ask Alessia Siniscalchi, Director/Actor in the show and Artistic Director at Kulturscio’k Live Art Collective, questions around the experience prior to the London premiere.
What inspired you to create an immersive show centred around Truman Capote and his iconic Black and White Ball?
The project began with an invitation from a friend to create a piece for a festival in Capri, focused on an American writer from the early 20th century. I immediately thought of Truman Capote, because in his work there is a deep intertwining between life and art — his life is a performance, and his art is a reflection of that performance.
The Black and White Ball became a powerful starting point because it represents both glamour and collapse — a moment of social brilliance that already contains its own fragility. What interests me is precisely that tension: celebration and sabotage existing at the same time.
The show embraces audience interaction, becoming part of Capote’s exclusive guest list. How did you design the production to enhance storytelling while maintaining audience agency?
We are not recreating an exclusive guest list in a literal way. Instead, we create a situation where the audience feels that they are participating in the birth of the event itself.
The show is structured like the beginning of a party that slowly becomes the performance. The audience is not forced into participation, but gently invited into it — through proximity, eye contact, moments of singing, and shared space.
Their agency remains intact: they can choose how far they go. The key is that they feel implicated, not controlled.
The cast includes performers exploring shifting roles of identity. How do you want this to resonate with contemporary audiences?
Capote himself was deeply connected to ambiguity — both fascinated and haunted by it. His relationship to identity, and especially to femininity, was complex and personal.
In the show, we explore this through two figures: one who embodies a certain fluidity, and another who attempts to imitate it but cannot fully inhabit it. There is something fragile and human in this gap.
It is not about making a statement, but about offering a sensitive, almost tender exploration of transformation — something that resonates strongly with contemporary questions around identity.
How was the collaborative process among the creative team in such a complex and immersive show?
The process has been very organic and evolving. The piece began as a reading in Capri, with minimal sound design. From there, it grew progressively.
Marco Cappelli initially composed one piece, but this expanded into a larger musical structure. Phil St-George added another layer of composition. Together with Paul Spera, we developed original texts and dialogues.
The main difficulty has been balancing a structured theatrical script with improvisation. Also, integrating the idea that the creation of the show and the creation of the party are happening simultaneously.
It’s a delicate balance, but also what gives the piece its vitality.
What do you hope audiences leave pondering after experiencing Garden Party?
I don’t want to deliver a clear message. I prefer to leave the audience with questions.
What is authentic and what is constructed?
Where does performance end and life begin?
Why do we continue to participate in systems we know are artificial?
And perhaps most importantly:
Is the party still worth it?
Are there future projects or themes you’d like to explore in a similar way?
Yes, absolutely. This way of working — combining structured text, improvisation, music, and live presence — is something I want to continue developing.
I’m particularly interested in exploring other major writers through this lens — such as Harold Pinter or Samuel Beckett — and rethinking how their work can exist today in a performative, immersive format.and I keep create jams dedicated to poetry Blake jam Kerouac jam .i want to do more of it
At the same time, Garden Party itself has the potential to evolve further. There are plans to integrate a photographic performance by Francesco Calabrese, where the audience becomes part of a living archive of images.
Ultimately, what interests me most is creating works that remain alive — where each performance can transform, even within a defined structure.
A huge thank you to Siniscalchi for taking time to answer our questions. We are looking forward to attending the event in May! Book your tickets here!
Max
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