Born With Teeth reviews round-up – starring Ncuti Gatwa & Edward Bluemel in the West End [Updated]

"Former Doctor Who and Sex Education star Ncuti Gatwa has done it all over again"

"Will we see two better star turns this year? I doubt it. As Winston Churchill might almost have said, Ncuti Gatwa, playing hell-raiser playwright Christopher Marlowe and Edward Bluemel, as a bashful William Shakespeare, have nothing to offer us but ‘blood, sweat, tears and... laughter’ in Liz Duffy Adams’ fascinating drama Born With Teeth"

"Such is the intensity of their performances under a phalanx of lights on all sides, the two actors are literally dripping in sweat."

"But even more impressive than his physique is Gatwa’s playfully feline disposition. Yes, his character is prepared to betray friends and lovers to secure his fortune."

"... Daniel Evans’s steamy production fizzes with rare theatrical chemistry."

"... as Kit purrs: ‘History is written by the victors, and delegated to the poets.’ He might also have added that history can be reborn, as it is here, in these two actors — with fangs."

"Seductively clever work from Ncuti Gatwa"

"Liz Duffy Adams blends intrigue and shifty eroticism with in-jokes and a discourse on creativity in this playful examination of Kit Marlowe and Shakespeare’s relationship"

"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."

"Her play blends intrigue and shifty eroticism with in-jokes and a discourse on creativity."

"Duffy uses the now-familiar trope of blending period and modern idioms but does so with aplomb."

"The script is also full of nods to both writers’ work, which could be smug and irritating but works here."

"Bluemel is an engaging Will, wary and diffident, almost petulant at times in his resistance to Kit’s outrageousness. But it’s Gatwa’s show."

"... the way Duffy’s script entwines the vicissitudes of sex, celebrity and Elizabethan politics is enormous fun."

"Fascinating encounters between Marlowe and Shakespeare"

"... Liz Duffy Adams’ firecracker of a play Born With Teeth"

"... Daniel Evans’ steamy, sensationally acted RSC production"

"At its heart, this is a piece about narrative control, about art under censorship, and about the way writers can reach down through centuries to give us the truth of their times. It’s fascinating, fun and flawed."

"It’s 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"

"But it does gradually grow in nuance and gravity, and it’s dazzlingly performed."

"... the erotic charge between them develops into something more tender, coupled with mutual devotion to an art form that can slyly outwit mortality."

"Edward Bleumel and Ncuti Gatwa thrill in intoxicating Shakespeare drama Born With Teeth"

"Elizabethan bromance with Ncuti Gatwa and Edward Bleumel in Born With Teeth"

"From the moment young, callow Will takes the stage to give us a little background intro and the frontcloth explodes in images of screaming tortured men, it is clear that director Daniel Evans isn’t aiming for a night of subtle rumination."

"Blazing with the energy of a feral genius, Gatwa’s Kit is a cousin to Caravaggio, a swaggering, bisexual smartass who would rather drink, fight and flirt than write."

"The language is fierce, funny and conjures the era without attempting to ape it."

"f you want a more serious examination of Christopher Marlowe’s complex personality, see Peter Whelan’s The School of Night or read Anthony Burgess’s novel A Dead Man in Deptford. If you want ninety minutes of intoxicating theatre, see this."

"Ncuti Gatwa’s Marlowe gets steamy with a bisexual Shakespeare"

"Born With Teeth dares to dramatise an imagined affair between the playwrights – diverting but ultimately toothless"

"90 minutes of entertaining hokum... What a steamy affair she conjures, potently assisted by Ncuti Gatwa as the homosexual Marlowe and Edward Bluemel as an ardent, if wavering bisexual Bard."

"It’s tragi-comical-farcical-ludicrous. What keeps you watching is the lusty bravura of Gatwa... with Bluemel (a rising star from Amazon Prime’s My Lady Jane) neatly evoking Shakespeare’s growing confidence and gnawing doubts."

"Whether you’re resistant or receptive to the main premise, there’s delight to be had in seeing a friskily rivalrous rapport form between the famous duo, even if we’re given little tangible sense of the wider Elizabethan world."

"While all of this should, in theory, matter hugely, the evening leaves us with an inevitable tang of “So what?”. It’s diverting enough, but ultimately toothless."

"Fun but trashy two-hander in which William Shakespeare and Kit Marlowe have a sexy time"

"For much of its running time Daniel Evans’s RSC production comes across like a particularly insane workplace comedy"

"There are laughs, but it’s not in fact a comedy: there is a core of po-facedness that becomes more apparent as the play wears on. Shakespeare’s star waxes; Marlowe’s starts to wane, as his relentless outrageousness starts to annoy people in power."

"Born with Teeth is pretty trashy. I rolled my eyes at the whole sexual tension thing"

"Evans directs with considerable force and zero period fluff"

"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."

"But I can’t help but feel she probably had a more expansive vision that she squashed down for the sake of crafting a cost effective celebrity vehicle. The final act tries to pivot to tragedy, but it’s all based on off stage politicking that it’s hard to invest in."

"It’s diverting – just don’t go expecting Shakespeare."

"Ncuti Gatwa simmers in Elizabethan battle of the playwrights"

"Gatwa’s Christopher Marlowe and Edward Bluemel’s William Shakespeare flirt, fight and write in Liz Duffy Adams’ sizzling new chamber play"

"Enjoying the historical license her character grants her, Duffy Adams whips the competitors into a frenzy and releases them at each other’s throats, letting them flirt, threaten, fight - and very occasionally write. But the bold imagination Kit calls for in reframing history is restrained by Daniel Evans’ staging."

"Bursts of violent action are reserved for mid-act screens, though tension is diffused as Will steps out to address the audience, undermining the intensity of the locked-door environment."

"... this is Gatwa’s show. His boisterous Kit sweats in Zoë Thomas-Webb’s leather two-piece, his every lithe action a flirtation."

"An intelligent slice of historical fiction that offers muscular performances and reminds us to lavish more attention on the other great Elizabethan playwright, Born With Teeth yearns for a sharper bite."

"Ncuti Gatwa stars in Shakespeare fan fiction"

"The Dr Who actor gets sweaty as Christopher Marlowe, opposite Edward Bluemel as the Bard, in this sprightly two-hander"

"Liz Duffy Adams’s sprightly two-hander about the relationship between Christopher Marlowe and a young William Shakespeare reimagines them as hot, horny lads with very 21st-century minds."

"... the play — premiered in the US in 2022 and now retooled for the West End — has the air of an ingenious revue sketch stretched to outsize proportions."

"You wait in vain for this Marlowe to acquire some nuance when he flirts with Edward Bluemel’s ingenuous Will"

"At its heart, though, it hovers at the level of conscientiously researched fan fiction."

"Ncuti Gatwa and Edward Bluemel are playwrights dancing with death"

"It’s an odd confection, at once challenging and comic, slightly circuitous and oddly revealing."

"The dialogue is snappy, and often very funny. “We’re the same age,” Shakespeare moans when he’s being patronised. “Not in stage years,” retorts Marlowe."

"But there’s also a lot of under-explained allusion to historical figures and their circles; background colour that makes sense if you know, but not a lot if you don’t."

... the play returns again and again to Shakespeare’s reluctance to play the spying game and Marlowe’s threats to betray him. It doesn’t progress its themes so much as circle around them."

"But it is the acting that holds you. Gatwa is electricfying as Marlowe, all flashing wit and sexy swagger"

"As Shakespeare, Bluemel is surprisingly endearing...It’s a performance full of grace and charm."

"Born With Teeth is too cerebral - but Ncuti Gatwa saves the day"

"The Doctor Who star carries this swashbuckling drama about William Shakespeare and his underappreciated rival Christopher Marlowe"

"Born With Teeth is, without doubt, the sort of drama that would sit more comfortably in Stratford upon Avon than the West End and is in London for one reason only: the star wattage of Doctor Who himself, Ncuti Gatwa"

"I’m delighted to report that Gatwa is in his swashbuckling element here, infinitely more compelling than he was in The Importance of Being Earnest"

"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."

"Ncuti Gatwa peacocks and flirts his way through this radical play"

"Liz Duffy Adams’ Tudor fan fiction stars Gatwa and Edward Bluemel as rivals Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare – it’s just a shame it didn’t dig deeper"

"... this sharp, saucy period drama by US playwright Liz Duffy Adams. And with Ncuti Gatwa in the role, you can well believe it."

"... there’s more than a hint of romantic tension to this exercise in Tudor fan fiction."

"Here, Gatwa revels in his role to an almost distracting degree... 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."

"Born With Teeth is built on abundant research into both Shakespeare and his fascinating rival Marlowe, but it never feels dry."

"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."

"Undemanding fun"

"Ncuti Gatwa and Edward Bluemel dazzle in this slight, stylish two-hander"

"Part historical fantasia, part parlour game of literary in-jokes... it makes a smooth-running star vehicle for dazzling turns from Ncuti Gatwa as Christopher Marlowe and Edward Bluemel as William Shakespeare"

"Duffy Adams’ touch is featherlight, and the play is undemanding fun with just a whiff of pretension"

"But while that celerity guards against the piece becoming ponderous, it comes at the price of dramatic and emotional heft. Nothing that happens here ever feels as if it matters much."

"Themes of artistic immortality, authorship and the nature of inspiration float through the writing, alongside discussion of religion... None of these ideas, though, is grappled with more than briefly. Instead, the pleasure comes chiefly from the push-pull of the personalities"

"... Duffy Adams never builds much tension on the way there. But this is a diverting enough double act, glinting with wit and style."

"Edward Bleumel and Doctor Who Ncuti Gatwa need to get a room in Born With Teeth"

"... Ncuti Gatwa's preening, prowling Christopher Marlowe basically wants to fight and "seek heaven in the flesh" for most of Liz Duffy Adams' riotous reinvention of the relationship between that era's two greatest playwrights."

"I hope the set furnishings had their own intimacy coordinator."

"... much as the 90 minutes with no interval entertains, with two electrifying performances and true moments of delight, rather like the eventual lack of any fornicating, all that fighting and flirting ultimately feels like endless foreplay."

"Adam's writing is fluid, and she works in allusions to her subjects' own wordsmithery (the title is a quote from Henry VI part 3) and achieves some of her own. But for such a short play with an entertaining premise and two charismatic leads, it sometimes drags, bogged down in the repetitive circling of themes and sexual advances"

"The two stars have crackling chemistry but some of the intimate moments feel a little stagey"

"I’d rather have done my taxes than watch this pointless play with Ncuti Gatwa"

"Born with Teeth is the kind of night at the theatre I like least: it’s too good to dismiss, too unengaging for me not to long for it to end"

"It did sound like the kind of what-if? bio-drama I’d make every effort to swerve at the Edinburgh Fringe, though. What if Charlie Chaplin were stuck in lift with Marcel Marceau in 1950s Paris?"

"It’s really not terrible. Duffy Adams can certainly craft a line. The RSC’s joint artistic director Daniel Evans stages it all with a certain low-key panache

"Ncuti Gatwa tends to be stuck in one performative gear as the knowingly outrageous Marlowe... Edward Bluemel is tremendous as a worm-that-turned Shakespeare. But then we know that the greatest dramatist that ever lived can’t stay meek for ever."

"I just couldn’t for the life of me see the point of it all."

"So if you’re the kind of person who hates theatre, I know where you’re coming from: there’s far too little story, I don’t care, yet a part of me thinks I’ve also failed in some way not to be more interested."