
International Theatre Database
Category
Play
Country
United Kingdom
Run Dates
Sep 12 - Oct 11, 2025
Run Time
90 minutes
2025.09.12 ~ 2025.10.11
Southwark Playhouse Elephant
In Hollywood, being yourself is the most challenging role of all. “This entire town is a cesspool, darling. Beautifully lit. Well appointed. But a cesspool nonetheless” 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? Starring Olivier Award-winner Tracie Bennett and star of stage and screen John Partridge, and directed by Tony-nominee Christopher Renshaw, 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 politicised.
Michael McKeever
Playwright/Author
Christopher Renshaw
Director
Bryan Hodgson
Associate Director
Ethan Cheek
Set Designer, Costume Designer
Jack Weir
Lighting Designer
Yvonne Gilbert
Sound Designer
Tracie Bennett
Cast(Tallulah Bankhead)
John Partridge
Cast(Billy Haines)
Nick Blakeley
Cast(Henry Willson)
Solomon Davy
Cast(Chad Manford)