Review by Paul Towers, 25/9/25
The Code by Michael McKeever
Directed by Christopher Renshaw
At Southwark Playhouse Elephant til Saturday
11th October 2025
Back in the heyday of Hollywood image was
everything. Behind the glitz and glamour of the big screen much was not what it
seemed. Reputation was everything and box office was king.
If you wanted to work you often had to
pretend to be something other than your true self, and not just on the screen.
Many stars of the time were secretly gay but
could never come out. Some even used those secrets to their advantage.
The Code is the imagined story of the meeting
of Billy Haines (John Partridge), a successful star of the silver screen who
refused to play the game and pretend to be straight, and arch closeted manipulator
Henry Willson (Nick Blakeley). Prior to a meeting with a studio head the pair,
along with Haines’ best friend, similarly outspoken star, Tallulah Bankhead
(Tracie Bennett), and Willson’s latest pretty boy protégé Chad Manford (Solomon
Davy) meet up for cocktails and a good gossip.
Bankhead, chain smoking and getting steadily
sozzled, acts as an almost narrator while slinging barbed comments left right
and centre. Gradually the conversation turns to whether young Chad should ditch
his boyfriend in order to present a respectable front and advance his career.
Willson and Haines have very different views. Do you choose career or domestic well-being?
Tracie Bennett, John Partridge and Nick
Blakeley tear up the stage as things come to a head.
A cautionary tale of what might be if
censorship is allowed to creep back.
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