First look at two-time Olivier Award winner Tracie Bennett, star of stage and screen John Partridge, Solomon Davy and Nick Blakeley in rehearsals for THE CODE. Opening at Southwark Playhouse Elephant on 12 September
Starring Tracie Bennett (Here We Are, National Theatre; Hairspray, West End; Follies, National Theatre) as Tallulah Bankhead and John Partridge (Eastenders, BBC; Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, West End; Cats, West End & UK Tour) as Billy Haines, Solomon Davy (Hairspray, UK Tour; Grease, West End) as Chad Manford and Nick Blakeley (Underdog: The Other Brontë, National Theatre; 24 Hour Plays, The Old Vic; Father Brown, BBC; Goodbye Christopher Robin, Fox Searchlight) as Henry Willson.
THE CODE lays bare the unspoken rules of Hollywood, then and now: a world where image still shapes opportunity, where authenticity is curated and identity remains politicized.Hollywood, 1950. A fading star. A rising one. An agent with an agenda. And a legend who’s seen it all.
Tallulah Bankhead – magnetic, mercurial, and unapologetically sharp-tongued – stops in for a cocktail at the home of former screen idol turned interior designer Billy Haines, who may – or may not – be planning to disappear from the town he once ruled.
Enter power agent Henry Willson and his all-too-perfect protégé Chad Manford, setting the room alight. In a world where image is everything, and identity must be carefully edited to survive, can any of them break “the code” without losing everything?
“This entire town is a cesspool, darling. Beautifully lit. Well appointed. But a cesspool nonetheless.”
THE CODE is written by Michael McKeever, directed by Christopher Renshaw and produced by Jim Kierstead with set and costume design by Ethan Cheek , lighting design by Jack Weir and casting by Nicholas Hockaday.
