Charismatic stars save the play when Shakespeare meets Marlowe

Wyndham’s theatre

Born With Teeth is an RSC production receiving its premiere in London rather than Stratford, and directed by the company’s co-Director Daniel Evans. The critics were generally agreed that Ncuti Gatwa  and Edward Bluemel were the saviours of the drama. They liked the concept of rising playwrights William Shakespeare (Bluemel) and Christopher Marlowe (Gatwa) revealing their differing characters as they collaborated on a play, but many felt the execution was repetitive and lacking wit.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

5 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

In a review that must have had some of his readers reaching for the smelling salts, the Daily Mail’s Patrick Marmion detailed the outrageous behaviour of Ncuti Gatwa’s Marlowe before declaring: ‘Daniel Evans’s steamy production fizzes with rare theatrical chemistry.’

4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑

Marianka Swain for LondonTheatre called it ‘a seriously steamy cat-and-mouse game, as American dramatist Liz Duffy Adams places these two brilliant men in one room so we can watch the sparks fly.’  She assured us: ‘this is an accessible romp that honours Shakespeare’s populist spirit, jubilantly reclaims queer history, and explores a literary mystery that continues to fascinate.’

The Financial Times’ Sarah Hemming (sadly often hidden behind a very expensive paywall) said it was ‘a tantalising piece — for better and for worse. It’s greatly entertaining, peppered with literary gags and impish anachronisms, and delivered with immense flourish. What holds it back is a reluctance to dive deeper into the huge themes it raises and give its characters more time to explore loaded issues such as religion, artistic freedom and self-preservation.’

Nick Curtis of The Standard needed a bucket of water thrown over him: ‘Phwoar! The chance to see a jacked and shirtless Ncuti Gatwa snogging his snake-hipped, chisel-cheekboned former Sex Education co-star Edward Bluemel is undoubtedly part of the appeal of Liz Duffy Adams’s seductively clever two-hander.’ He liked the play, saying it ‘blends intrigue and shifty eroticism with in-jokes and a discourse on creativity. The keynote of Daniel Evans’s production…is fluidity: nothing is every quite what it seems.’ He ended: ‘the way Duffy’s script entwines the vicissitudes of sex, celebrity and Elizabethan politics is enormous fun. And as star vehicles go, Evan’s production is a smart and subtle one.’

Cindy Marcolina for BroadwayWorld was star struck: ‘The production would be a resounding flop without Gatwa and Bluemel. Their bond is fun and attractive, magnetic in how it compels us to forgive the flimsiness of the script, the fluctuating quality of its dialogues, and its (mis)use of specific terminology’. Both she and Time Out’s critic described the play as ‘slash fiction’, which she helpfully explained is ‘a genre of fanfiction that focuses on the romantic relation between preexisting fictional characters of the same sex.’ So now you know.

Heather Neill sitting at TheArtsDesk told us: ‘under Daniel Evans’ spirited direction, Ncuti Gatwa as Marlowe and Edward Bluemel as Shakespeare grab every opportunity to explore their versions of these fascinating, contradictory characters’. She told us the playwright ‘is interested in the cause of – and often barriers to – artistic freedom now as well as in Elizabethan England. This is echoed in designer Joanna Scotcher’s set, the stage surrounded by banks of lights that might suggest interrogation as well as theatricality, and her costumes combining punk materials with Tudor shapes.’

TheatreWeekly‘s Greg Stewart was more enthusiastic about the script than others: ‘a bold and cerebral imagining of a clandestine creative collision between Christopher (Kit) Marlowe and William (Will) Shakespeare.’ He continued: ‘Adams’ writing is dense and richly layered, peppered with references and easter eggs that will delight aficionados of both playwrights. While the dialogue occasionally veers into the overly verbose, it remains riveting, especially when delivered with the electric chemistry of its two leads.’

3 stars ⭑⭑⭑

Sarah Crompton of WhatsOnStage summed it up as ‘an odd confection, at once challenging and comic, slightly circuitous and oddly revealing… it’s brought to vital, charismatic life by its casting’.

Time Out’s Andrzej Lukowski found it ‘comes across like a particularly insane workplace comedy’. He went on: ‘Born with Teeth is pretty trashy. I rolled my eyes at the whole sexual tension thing: our two heroes do end up snogging, but it mostly seems to be because that’s what happens in slash fiction’. Getting down to the nitty gritty, he said: ‘ultimately what Born with Teeth suffers from the most is asking us to imagine a sex and paranoia crazed Elizabethan society while not actually showing it to us.’ He concluded: ‘Born with Teeth is a lot of fun: two charismatic actors having a ball pinging off each other while chomping down on a script that spikes the trashiness with some genuine wit.’

For The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar, ‘this is Gatwa’s show. His boisterous Kit sweats in Zoë Thomas-Webb’s leather two-piece, his every lithe action a flirtation’. For her, the play promised more than it delivered: ‘The stakes simmer throughout but never reach boiling point.’

Sam Marlowe of The Stage described the production: ‘The aesthetic of Evans’ staging is chic modernity. Andrzej Goulding’s video design intercuts fever-dreamlike, monochrome scenes of the two playwrights being subjected to torture by the Elizabethan state with pixellations and static – designer violence, MTV-style. Meanwhile, their interactions take place on a set by Joanna Scotcher, lit by Neil Austin, of enclosing walls made up of banks of lights.’ She ended: ‘We know where this story is heading – after all, there’s no Royal Marlowe Company – and Duffy Adams never builds much tension on the way there. But this is a diverting enough double act, glinting with wit and style.’

Praising the actors’ performances, Fiona Mountford of i-news said: ‘Bluemel gives an understated performance of someone growing in confidence, growing into themselves, whereas Gatwa’s Marlowe is a flame that burns with explosive brightness and is then extinguished.’

‘It’s tragi-comical-farcical-ludicrous’, said the Telegraph‘s Dominic Cavendish, ‘What keeps you watching is the lusty bravura of Gatwa … with Bluemel…neatly evoking Shakespeare’s growing confidence and gnawing doubts.’ He concluded: ‘It’s diverting enough, but ultimately toothless.’

Alice Saville of The Independent took a balanced view about Ncuti Gatwa: ‘Gatwa revels in his role to an almost distracting degree: brandishing an implausibly long feathered quill, making an Olympics-worthy leap across the stage, and baring his gleaming chest. It’s all incredibly enjoyable. But what he doesn’t do is bare his soul, or show the inner torment of a man so obsessed with power and political intrigue that he’ll sacrifice everything else, even his happiness.’ And about the play: ‘It sings with all the sex and politics and religious iconoclasm that the bard handled so carefully in his plays, showing that every literary choice he made was freighted with danger. What it doesn’t do is show the emotional cost of living in this world. And that makes it hard to get deeply invested in this impossible literary love story, however intriguing its twists and turns might be.’

The Times’ Clive Davis found: ‘You wait in vain for this Marlowe to acquire some nuance when he flirts with Edward Bluemel’s ingenuous Will’.  For all its literary references, ‘At its heart, though, it hovers at the level of conscientiously researched fan fiction.’ He was not amused: ‘the attempts at humour soon begin to pall. Each line lands with the same thudding note, so much so that, halfway through, I found myself harbouring nostalgic memories of the much more deft wit of Ben Elton’s Shaftesbury Avenue version of Upstart Crow.’

2 stars

Dominic Maxwell at The Sunday Times couldn’t wait for it to end: ‘Born with Teeth is the kind of night at the theatre I like least: it’s too good in its execution to simply dismiss, too pointless for me not to long for it to end.’

Critics’ average rating: 3.5⭑

Value rating 37 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price.)

Born With Teeth can be seen at Wyndham’s Theatre until 1  November 2025.  Buy tickets directly from the theatre

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