His guest lists featured Audrey Hepburn, Greta Garbo, the Bloomingdales, Peter Lawford and Patricia Kennedy, David Niven, Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Hope Lange and many, many more.

This year Fringe audiences are being offered the chance to don a mask and take part in the world premiere of Garden Party, Truman Capote’s Black and White Celebration – an immersive theatrical experience.

Two hosts stage their own garden party where rich and famous – movie stars and politicians or avantgarde artists – become dancers in the ballad of hypocrisy.

They capture the spirit of Capote’s own great social coup, his star-studded 1966 Black and White Ball masquerade at New York’s Plaza Hotel, which embodied his immense talent, ambition and obsessive desire to be the centrepiece of high society.

Presented by Paris-based Kulturscio’k Live Art Collective, Garden Party, Truman Capote’s Black and White Celebration plunges audiences into a world of shimmering glamour, smeared by squalid secrets. Performers Sean O’Callaghan, Paul Spera, and Alessia Siniscalchi (with live sound by Didier Leglise) introduce them to a dangerous conflict where art and life are closely entwined.

And the real guests of honour are not the multitude of famous names but hypocrisy, class power, destructive gossip and perhaps even murder. And not all the guests are equally welcome, indeed many have been invited simply for what they represent.

The show is aimed at those who love mystery, original music and immersive writing.

Director and performer, Alessia Siniscalchi, said: “At a time when being gay or questioning gender norms was profoundly controversial, Capote embraced and championed the queer. This new, immersive production returns us to high society life in that era, its delights, darkness, scandals and the yearning to smash social hypocrisy.”