Theatre Group visit to see Born with Teeth

Based on a book by Liz Duffy Adams, the play Born with Teeth at Wyndham’s Theatre imagines the relationship between William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe when they are forced by Royal decree to work on a play together.

Ncuti Gatwa (of Dr Who fame) is Marlowe and Edward Bluemel plays Shakespeare. The setting is a writer’s bench in the back room of a pub, where Marlowe initially greets Shakespeare with distain, given that he is already rich and famous with acclaimed plays such as Dr Faustus while Will is still a struggling beginner.

The play concentrates on their developing relationship as they work on one of the Henry series together: apparently there is some scholarly opinion that the differing writing styles in those Shakespeare plays give credence to the theory that Marlowe was a collaborator.

But while any evidence that one or both of these two were bisexual or gay seems unlikely, of course, this being 2025 with two men on stage, sexual tension and sexual activity between them is portrayed. Such renditions are now so commonplace that they have become cliched and boring, in my view demonstrating an acute lack of imagination on the part of the writer.

What is far more interesting is their developing intellectual relationship. Over the two or so years that the play covers, Marlowe diminishes in power whilst Shakespeare’s reputation grows and grows. Gatwa shows a subtlety when he brings this out. He plays Marlowe exceptionally well and conveys Marlow’s waning authority to a fault.

The historical setting is of course the time of Elizabeth 1st, and the fear that both men have of her spies and how that affects their actions during the play (apparently it was Elizabeth who “invented“ spies) was also captured well.

The stage setting too was imaginative, with short video clips conveying Marlowe‘s demise with huge imagination.

On leaving, by chance we went past the stage door, where there was a sizable crowd waiting.no doubt hoping to catch a glimpse of or maybe even get an autograph from their heartthrob, Gatwa, and who, it has to be said, fully deserves such adoration for his splendid portrayal of Marlowe.

Contributed by Clive Nash