About

“Keep your pretty head, son, or you’ll lose it.”

Hollywood, the 1940s.  A charismatic but notorious film director auditions a young actor for a horror movie whose lead has died under mysterious circumstances. He then proceeds to lift the veil on exploitation, broken promises, sex, cults, and other dark practices that go on behind the screen – not to mention what may have happened to his former star.

There’s a fine line between artifice and fact. And when that line is blurred, nightmares can come true.

Presented by award-winning theatre-maker Polis Loizou as a re-enactment of recently-uncovered audition footage by film director Laszlo Parker, ‘You Oughta Be In Pictures’ is a tale that aims to chill the blood while sowing the seeds of doubt.

This unsettling one-man show about the seedy side of Old Hollywood, and what filmmaking can teach us about engaging critically with the media we consume, has already thrilled audiences in Edinburgh, Brighton, Buxton and Manchester – in London this last week.

WINNER: Best Actor (Buxton Fringe 2026)