Southwark Playhouse – until 11 October 2025
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
5*****
From the moment Tracie Bennett prowls onto the stage as Tallulah Bankhead, you know that this is something special.
Michael McKeever’s sharp and witty play explores the darker side of Hollywood as the cost and hypocrisy of maintaining the wholesome image demanded by the studios and the public is laid bare. Billy Haines (John Partridge) was once the biggest actor in Hollywood. In 1950, his films are largely forgotten outside the industry but he is a renowned interior designer. Enjoying drinks with his great friend Tallulah Bankhead, they are joined by agent Henry Wilson (Nick Blakeley) and his new protégé Chad Manford (Solomon Davy)
Beginning as a delightful exchange of barbs and stories between Haines and Bankhead, things get darker when Wilson and Manford arrive. Wilson is working on Manford’s image and wants Billy’s help to manoeuvre Solomon’s boyfriend out of the picture. This begins a battle for Solomon’s integrity as Billy and Tallulah use wit and their experiences to reveal to Solomon the personal cost of not being true to himself, while Wilson counters with the career ending consequences of not playing by Hollywood’s rules – using Billy as his prime example.
Ethan Cheek’s glorious set, lit beautifully by Jack Weir, is straight out of a movie set, evoking glamour and chic, framed by a torn and tattered giant billboard advertising Hollywoodland that signals the seedier reality of shattered dreams. The production exudes cinematic beauty and Hollywood melodrama, with slick direction from Christopher Renshaw. The blocking could have been disastrously clunky in this auditorium, but Renshaw has the characters moving instinctively during confrontations, allowing good sightlines from the side seats throughout. It all feels very voyeuristic, as if we are peeking behind the curtain at the darkness, and McKeever cleverly includes some fourth wall breaking moments as Bankhead shares her observations on homosexuals with the audience.
The cast are incredible. Tracie Bennett is a force of nature as Bankhead, drinking, swaggering but oh so fragile even as she delivers zingers with venom. Bennett’s expressions and body language as she listens silently to the men are a masterclass in stage presence. This performance could overshadow a weaker cast, but not in this production. Partridge is phenomenal as Haines, charismatic and likeable, but full of quiet strength and integrity. Blakeley is wonderfully contained as Wilson – slightly creepy at first but gradually revealing himself as a venomously driven as a cog in the Hollywood machine. Haines’s disgusted but despairing understanding of Wilson’s choices is written beautifully. Davy is heartbreaking as the naïve young actor offered the world. His reactions as Haines and Bankhead try to explain the reality of his situation are devastating.
McKeever has created colourful but nuanced versions of Bankhead, Haines and Wilson, and imaging them sparring like this is fantastic fun, even as bleak realities are revealed.
The world should have moved on from the morality of the 1950s, but the curation of public image, judgemental morality and hypocrisy of The Code are oh so relevant and present today. McKeever’s brilliantly biting and funny play is unmissable.