The Code Tickets - London
Just being yourself is probably the most challenging role of all in Hollywood.
“This entire town is a cesspool, darling. Well-appointed. Beautifully lit. But a cesspool nonetheless.”
1950, Hollywood. One fading star. One rising one. An agent pushing an agenda. And a weary screen legend who’s been there, done that, and seen it all.
The mercurial, magnetic, and famously sharp-tongued Tallulah Bankhead arrives for a cocktail at the home of Billy Haines - iconic former movie star and screen idol turned interior designer - who may (or may not) be about to disappear forever from the town he once ruled.
Enter power agent, Henry Willson, who, along with Chad Manford, his all-too-perfect protégé, set the room alight. In a place where identity must be edited carefully to survive, and image is everything, can any of them manage to break ‘the code’ without losing everything?
Olivier Award-winner Tracie Bennett stars alongside John Partridge at Southwark Playhouse Elephant, directed by Tony-nominee Christopher Renshaw. The Code shines a spotlight on the unspoken rules of Hollywood, both then and now, to open a world where image still shapes opportunity and authenticity is curated, and identity politicised.