Born With Teeth: ‘mischievously provocative’ play starring Ncuti Gatwa
‘Sprightly’ production from Liz Duffy Adams imagines the relationship between Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe

“It’s theatre, not a history lesson,” says Will Shakespeare early on in Liz Duffy Adams’s “firecracker” of a new play. This line, said Sarah Hemming in the Financial Times, serves as a warning to the audience that they should “take everything” here “with a pinch of salt”.
Steamy, “mischievously provocative”, and “peppered with literary gags”, “Born With Teeth” imagines the relationship between Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe as they collaborate on the “Henry VI” plays. It’s highly entertaining, and sensationally acted: Edward Bluemel makes a convincingly gauche but steely Will, the young man from the sticks, while Ncuti Gatwa (“Doctor Who”) is superb as Kit – a “hypnotic presence twirling a ridiculously camp quill”. But what holds the play back is its failure “to dive deeper into the huge themes” it raises, which include religious and artistic freedom in a repressive era.
Gatwa’s fans will surely relish this “sprightly” production, said Clive Davis in The Times – although his Marlowe, all extravagant gestures and wicked glances, is very like “the OTT version of Algernon that he gave us in the National’s recent, panto-like revival of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’”. Others may be more sceptical about what is essentially “an ingenious revue sketch stretched to outsize proportions”. But while the script is rich in literary references, when compared with, say, the TV comedy “Upstart Crow”, there is “more artful wittering here than actual wit”, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph.
We get some sense of the complex times in which these men live. Adams suggests that Marlowe’s insouciance and his insecurity relate to his “espionage-related connections in high places”; and both men are under pressure to “spill inculpating secrets about each other” – Marlowe’s inferred atheism and the Catholic leanings of Shakespeare’s parents.
All this should “matter”, yet we’re left with a feeling of “So what?”. The evening is “really not terrible”, said Dominic Maxwell in The Sunday Times; but I could not see the point of it. “Bluemel is great. Gatwa has his moments. Some lines land. What can I say? I’d rather have done my taxes.”
Wyndham’s Theatre, London WC2. Until 1 November
-
A little-visited Indian Ocean archipelago
The Week Recommends The paradise of the Union of the Comoros features beautiful beaches, colourful coral reefs and lush forests
-
Diane Keaton: the Oscar-winning star of Annie Hall
In the Spotlight Something’s Gotta Give actor dies from pneumonia at the age of 79
-
Heirs and Graces: an ‘enthralling’ deep dive into the decline of nobility
The Week Recommends Eleanor Doughty explores the ‘bizarre fascination’ with the British aristocracy
-
6 sporty homes with tennis courts
Feature Featuring a clay tennis court in New York and a viewing deck in California
-
Critics’ choice: Seafood in the spotlight
Feature An experimental chef, a newspaper-worthy newcomer, and a dining titan’s fresh spin-off
-
Taylor Swift’s Showgirl: Much glitter, little gold
Feature Swift’s new album has broken records, but critics say she may have gotten herself creatively stuck
-
Theater review: Masquerade
218 W. 57th St., New York City 218 W. 57th St., New York City
-
Film reviews: Roofman and Kiss of the Spider Woman
Feature An escaped felon’s heart threatens to give him away and a prisoner escapes into daydreams of J.Lo.