MickeyJoTheatre Podcast

Episode: "Born With Teeth" starring Edward Bluemel and Ncuti Gatwa (Wyndham's Theatre, West End) – ★★★ REVIEW

Date: September 7, 2025
Host: MickeyJoTheatre

Main Theme and Purpose

In this episode, MickeyJo dives into a review of "Born With Teeth," a new play by Liz Duffy Adams at London's Wyndham's Theatre. Starring Ncuti Gatwa as Christopher Marlowe and Edward Bluemel as William Shakespeare, the production imagines three encounters between the famed Elizabethan playwrights—mixing historical speculation, queer subtext, and Renaissance espionage under the direction of Daniel Evans. MickeyJo’s review focuses on storytelling, character dynamics, performances, and the interplay between historical accuracy and creative license.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Play Premise and Structure

• Setting & Concept:

  • The play centers on imagined meetings between Shakespeare and Marlowe in the years preceding Marlowe's death, suggesting they might have collaborated, been rivals, or even lovers.
  • Structure: An uninterrupted 90-minute performance, broken into three acts representing three annual encounters (02:05).

• Tone and Opening:

  • Opens with an intense, sensory moment: "There is a booming soundscape and harsh bright lighting and video projections..." (02:40).
  • Both men appear restrained, one suspended upside down, setting a tone of paranoia, violence, and danger—a metaphor for the period, but quickly revealed as a "flash of possibility" (MickeyJo).
  • Shakespeare then breaks the fourth wall to dismiss the literal truth of the opening, introducing the play’s playfulness with history.

Political and Historical Context

• Elizabethan Danger:
  • The era depicted is "turbulent and dangerous," defined by religious persecution and political upheaval after multiple shifts in monarchy (03:30).
  • The subplot—espionage under Elizabeth I’s court—lurks in the background, increasingly influencing the personal dynamic.

Character Dynamics and Relationship

• Marlowe’s Seniority:

  • "Christopher Marlowe is very much [Shakespeare’s] senior. Not in age... but he has more acclaim and more experience at the beginning" (04:05).
  • Shakespeare is introduced as the "junior playwright and, in fact, something of a fan."

• Sexual & Intellectual Tension:

  • Dialogue: “One part seduction, one part interrogation” (04:26).
  • The play “deliberately steamy... fan fiction of a BA English Literature student” (04:35).
  • Though the sexual and emotional tension is palpable, “the play itself remains... stuck and static... a lot of theatrical foreplay and a relationship that feels inevitable but is never fully consummated” (06:10).

• Narrative Limitations:

  • The conversations between the two men are repetitive; “they more or less continue to have the same conversations... will they betray each other politically or will they go at it right here, right now, on the parchment, quills in hand?” (05:00).
  • The play is observed to “play more like scene study... than a full, fleshed out narrative” (05:23).

Dialogue and Thematic Elements

• Modernized Dialogue:

  • The language is “semi-anachronistic,” making the play feel accessible.
  • Notable: Marlowe uses the word "uni" for university; such modern intrusions “endear it to a contemporary audience” (07:00).

• Subtext and Unspoken:

  • Much of what matters is in “the questions they aren’t asking and the answers they aren’t giving” (07:28).
  • The focus is less on facts and more on "peeling back layer upon layer" of humanity between the two.

Segment Highlights & Notable Quotes

Performances (Starting at 09:59)

• Ncuti Gatwa (Christopher Marlowe):

  • “Ancuti immediately arrives on the stage with that singular kind of charisma...” (10:05).
  • “He is flamboyant. He is removing his cape with a flourish. He is gesticulating with a quill in a sort of a phallic way. Hell, what am I saying? A decisively phallic way.”
  • "Even as he is trying to extract potentially damning personal information about Shakespeare’s own religious affiliations, he is all the while eyeing him hungrily in a way that is just really lip biting stuff."

• Edward Bluemel (William Shakespeare):

  • “He is thoughtful and apprehensive and eventually mournful. But we also get to see his rise depicted certainly by the end of the thing.” (13:02)
  • “There are some brilliant creative choices...that Shakespeare, in the years that have passed, has risen up in the world...a gut punch revelation...that indicate that where the two men now stand is very different to where they did back when they first met.”

• Chemistry and Direction:

  • "If there's one thing that the play in Daniel Evans' direction really gets right, it's the loaded, charged sexual tension between these two men" (11:05).
  • "You're really willing for some kind of progression or development in their relationship...longing for the power balance to become just that little bit more tumultuous."

• Shakespearean Easter Eggs & Lines:

  • "As [Shakespeare] says, there is more in heaven and earth than we can dream of. This, of course, being one of the many lines of Hamlet." (12:16)
  • Name dropping of “Gaveston” triggers a personal reaction for MickeyJo: “I sat up in that theatre like a meerkat” (11:54).

• Creative Process on Stage:

  • The moment when the title is almost improvised: both men pause and try to jot down "born with teeth," playfully fighting over ownership.
  • Debate over “bishop” versus “cardinal”—historical accuracy weighed against dramatic effect.

Overall Assessment & Thematic Reflection (16:32)

• Strengths:

  • “Scenes, for the most part, and the dialogue between them does catch fire, and they are brilliantly well cast and intensely and intimately directed.”
  • “There is, however, such a strong spark between these two performers, kept aflame by... sometimes sensitive, sometimes sensual performances… They are fantastic together, and if their compelling chemistry is what you're looking forward to, then you shan't be disappointed.”

• Limitations:

  • The supposed subplots about espionage and politics “are referenced, occasionally bubble up, but never fully take over—the relationship remains front and center but static.”
  • Comments on relevance: “not an awful lot about this that feels astonishingly relevant now and for historical exploration.”
  • Laments what the play could have been: “If we’re going to do Shakespeare x Marlowe fan fiction, then we may as well go a little further with it...” (17:36).

• Missed Opportunities:

  • No exploration of the Marlowe conspiracy theory or greater historical intrigue.
  • The self-referential device, with Shakespeare repeatedly reminding us of the fictionality, “wounds itself a little bit... ultimately, we all know that what we're looking at isn't documentary.”

Notable Quotes

• On the play’s core dynamic:
  • "It is ultimately a lot of theatrical foreplay and a relationship that feels inevitable but is never fully consummated." – MickeyJo (06:10)
• On creative choices and direction:
  • "They are brilliantly well cast and intensely and intimately directed." (16:40)
• On what it delivers for queer theatre:
  • “I’m absolutely down for a piece of theater that spends time investigating the queer identities of these two playwrights. But I think there's also more fascinating fodder that could have been brought into this.” (17:51)
• On the audience's expectations:
  • "If their compelling chemistry is what you're looking forward to, then you shan't be disappointed. Go and check them out for yourselves in Born With Teeth at the Wyndham's Theatre..." (20:00)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:05] – Introduction of play’s concept, structure, and Marlowe-Shakespeare dynamic
• [04:26] – The play’s tone: seduction, interrogation, and flirtation
• [05:23] – Commentary on narrative repetition and limitations
• [07:00] – On modernized, accessible dialogue
• [09:59–14:30] – Deep dive into performances, queer subtext, chemistry, and staging
• [16:32] – Overall assessment, thematic reflection, and final critique
• [20:00] – Closing and call for listener opinions

Summary

MickeyJo delivers a nuanced review of "Born With Teeth," praising Gatwa and Bluemel’s performances and the charged chemistry that animates their scenes. While the hyper-focused script and “scene study” vibe dominate, the play finds emotional energy in its sharply drawn, sexually charged interactions. MickeyJo wishes the narrative explored its themes and historical possibilities with greater ambition, but suggests those who seek compelling, intimate queer drama (and star wattage) on the West End will likely leave satisfied.

Final Word:
“Those have been my thoughts, but I'd love to hear yours. Go and check them out for yourselves in Born With Teeth at the Wyndham's Theatre…” (20:00)