Image: Ncuti Gatwa and Edward Bleumel – Born With Teeth – photo by Johan Persson
One of the best theatrical productions this year, The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Born With Teeth directed by Daniel Evans imagines a meeting between William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, two great playwrights of their time.
In this two-hander, Ncuti Gatwa as Christopher Marlowe (Kit) and Edward Bluemel as William Shakespeare (Will) give mesmerising performances in a play where author Liz Duffy Adams explores one of literature’s most persistent questions: What if Shakespeare didn’t work alone? The actors are on stage for virtually the entire 90 minutes which, with witty and sometimes comical dialogue, imagines the discourse between the two men.
In the world of late-Tudor England, Queen Elizabeth 1’s England was fighting for survival. The country protected itself from enemies abroad with ferocious treason laws and surveillance techniques. The writers are seen in the back room of a pub collaborating on the three Henry VI plays penned early in Shakespeare’s life. The drama confirms the contentious issue of Marlowe’s literary importance to Shakespeare and vice-versa. Their co-writing refutes many theories as well as highlighting two contrasting temperaments brought into one another’s orbits amidst a larger climate of political, social and even sexual cunning.
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Only on for a very short run, the play finishes on Saturday, 1 November 2025.
Performance times: Monday – Sat 7.30pm, Wed & Sat 2.30pm
Audio described performance: Saturday 20 September 2.30pm Captioned performance: Saturday 4 October 2.30pm
Wyndham’s Theatre, Charing Cross Road, London WC2H ODA.
Book online: www.delfontmackintosh.co.uk Tickets from £25
2,000 tickets available at £10 for 16-25 year olds, sponsored by TikTok