Born With Teeth review: A biting two-hander that leaves its mark
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| By
Sian McBride
Bold, brash, and utterly bewitching, Liz Duffy Adams’ Born With Teeth arrives with a ferocity that grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go.
A large screen flickers and stutters as you arrive. Displayed on it are abstract shapes which create CCTV-esque static. The screen violently and abruptly punctuates the performance, splitting the 90 minute play into jagged sections, an echo of Shakespeare’s own five-act structure. The set, when it is revealed, is stripped to its bones; a pair of chairs and a long oak table sit in front of a wall of spotlights. This is a world of surveillance and suspicion, a watchdog state where Queen Elizabeth has eyes everywhere, and no one can hide. Catholics are hunted, and poets and playwrights, whose writings can betray their hidden desires, live under constant scrutiny. Even in the dim privacy of a pub backroom, Kit Marlowe (Ncuti Gatwa) and Will Shakespeare (Edward Bluemel) cannot escape the glare.
Kit Marlowe, already infamous and dangerously embroiled in espionage, is dangerous - part seducer, part spy, part predator. While William Shakespeare, a naive upstart crow, treads the line between admiration and fear. He’s drawn to Marlowe’s brilliance yet wary of being pulled into his orbit. As the two collaborate on Henry VI, Kit presses Shakespeare's buttons; physically, emotionally, politically. He wants his body as much as his words, but he also wants something else: the name of a traitor, a gift that might keep the noose from tightening around his own neck. Their relationship flits between attraction, rivalry, and betrayal, a sparring match of lust and wit that's as brutal as Titus Andronicus and just as thrilling.
However, unlike a 3 hour epic written over 400 years ago, the pace never relaxes. Gatwa prowls the stage with athleticism, leaping from table to floor with the physicality of a predator. His smirk beams brighter than the tower of lights that accompany him on the stage, his every movement loaded with menace and desire. Marlowe is arrogant and manipulative, but with Gatwa's charisma and wicked wit shining throughout, you can’t help but love him. Bluemel, meanwhile, radiates charm and magnetism, matching Gatwa line for line and tempering Marlowe’s fire with humour and humanity. Their chemistry is electric; volatile, unpredictable, and endlessly watchable.
The production tears through complex subjects with biting humour, pulling the audience from dread to laughter in a heartbeat, while still keeping them at the edge of their seat. Unsure of what direction it could go in next. The show’s as seductive as it is dangerous, as funny as it is devastating. It chews you up, spits you out, and leaves you thoroughly exhausted.
Fast, fiery, and impossible to shake off, Born With Teeth leaves its mark.
Born With Teeth plays at the Wyndham's Theatre until 1st November 2025.