The Code

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” – Tallulah Bankhead

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.