Photo: Danny Kaan
Writer: Michael McKeever
Director: Christopher Renshaw
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Charlie Chaplin and Alfred Hitchcock have established link between south-east London and Hollywood, so perhaps Elephant & Castle is as good a place as any to stage The Code, Michael McKeever’s new one-act play exposing the dark side of the American film industry.
It is 1950. We are in what many describe as the “golden age“ of movies, during which the big studios and the executives who run them reign supreme. The “Hollywoodlamd” sign towers above Ethan Cheek’s smart set design, representing a cocktail lounge where Tallulah Bankhead (Tracie Bennett) is already slightly tipsy. She had been one of the biggest names in the early days of movies, but her star is now fading rapidly. She still works both in Hollywood and on Broadway, but she is overlooked repeatedly for the plum roles and she remains bitter over having missed out on Scarlett O’Hara more than a decade earlier. The difficulty, she tells us, is that studio bosses regard her as too risky, because of her known promiscuity with both men and women and her willingness to talk openly about sex. The studios demand that their stars adhere to a strict moral “code” which dictates how they behave in private as well as in public.
Tallulah is joined by Billy Haines, possibly the biggest male movie star on the planet during the 1920s and early 1930s until his career had been wrecked by his refusal to comply with his studio boss’s demands for him to get married and end his long-term homosexual relationship. Billy had risen like a phoenix from the ashes of his film career to establish himself as a prominent interior designer with a long list of A-lust clients. He believes that he now stands as living proof that there are more important things in life than film stardom.
Happily, Bennett herself is nowhere near to becoming a fading star. She gives Tallulah similar swagger to that of her West End performance as Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow, inebriated and fragile, yet unashamedly flamboyant and gleefully vulgar. It is great credit to Partridge that he is never overshadowed by this tor de force; his proud, dignified Billy gives the play emotional depth and heart. Together, these actors make a glittering pair of code breakers.
In its opening stages, director Christopher Renshaw;s production feels sluggish in places; it is merely a conversation piece, all back stories and no front story. This all changes with the arrival of sleazy agent Henry Willson (Nick Blakeley) and his latest protege, naive young actor Chad Manford (Solomon Davy). Pressure is mounting on Chad to sacrifice his gay relationship in pursuit of fame and fortune, but will he succumb or will he follow Billy’s example and be true to himself? The play now finds the dramatic tension that it had needed from the beginning.
Written crisply and performed with flair, The Code trades heavily in showbiz gossip, most of which should by now be well known. However, there may be some who still buy into Hollywood myths and this is certainly a play to open their eyes.
Performance date: 17 September 2005
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