"Last month, John Partridge was confronted by his strangest homophobic incident yet, when a woman in Greenwich Park told him to "suck a rainbow". "I pissed myself," the 54-year-old actor beams. "I know this is meant to be some horrendous slur at me right now, but you know what? If I could find one, I would f***ing suck the life out of it. Show me that rainbow! You gotta laugh.""
"By the mid-920s, Haines was MGM's box office darling, en route to becoming one of the shiniest stars of Hollywood's Golden Age. Today, his story is criminally unknown. In 1933, eight years into his relationship with his partner Jimmie Shields, MGM offered him an ultimatum: enter a Lavender Marriage, or lose his burgeoning stardom. He chose the latter. "He is really an unsung LGBT hero... I knew nothing about him," Partridge confesses. "I was a little bit ashamed.""
"The Code imagines Haines at home in 1950, now an interior designer, hosting a cocktail hour with his friend and bisexual actress Tallulah Bankhead (played by Tony Award nominee Tracie Bennett). In walks Henry Wilson (Nick Blakeley), the real-life, queer Hollywood agent responsible for building the careers of closeted stars Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter, who believes that the closet is the best place for actors striving for success."
John Partridge endured a public homophobic remark and responded with humor and defiance. Persistent homophobia provokes both laughter and despair in his life. He portrays 1930s movie star William 'Billy' Haines, who rose to MGM stardom in the mid-1920s. In 1933 MGM demanded Haines enter a Lavender Marriage or lose his career; Haines refused and left the studio. The Code stages Haines in 1950 as an interior designer hosting Tallulah Bankhead when agent Henry Wilson arrives, advocating the closet to secure careers. The play interrogates closeting, queer survival strategies, and unsung LGBT heroism.
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