By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN? Saturday 16 August, opens 2 September and runs through 1 November 2025 RUNTIME: 90 minutes (without interval)

Will they or won’t they? There’s real sexual tension between Gatwa’s roistering mentor Kit Marlowe and Bluemel’s in awe fanboy Shakespeare.

• Read on for reasons including how Born With Teeth boasts plenty of bite, much to chew and lots that’s entertaining to swallow

Liz Duffy Adams’ new 2-hander explores the idea that William Shakespeare may not have written everything he is credited for.

You join us in 1591 in London where English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era Christopher ‘Kit’ Marlowe is considered the foremost dramatist in the city and invites a young naive Shakespeare, himself a far less successful author, to take notes for him.

They co-write Henry VI part III which includes the titular quote: ‘Oh Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth.’

We learn that late Tudor England is a time of foreign enemies and internal unrest where wise Elizabethans kept their heads down yet the cocksure Marlowe operates as a spy and tries to recruit the reluctant Shakespeare.

Gatwa’s Marlowe arrives in leather and we can see the sweat literally drip off his face as he eventually discards it to go topless and pursue his seduction of Shakespeare who is married with children and declines to mention them if at all possible because he fears their secret Catholocism will endanger them if become known.

But is Marlowe’s predatory behaviour mere lust, an attempt to persuade Shakespeare he should become a spy or to shake up the world of a man who wants to hide within the words of his plays rather than Marlowe’s immediately identifiable style? Or all 3 simultaneously?

Former Doctor Who Gatwa (The Importance Of Being Earnest, National Theatre) ramps up the camp from the roles he is best known yet with more convincing aggressive physicality and Bluemel (Love In Idleness, Menier Chocolate Factory), who appeared opposite his co-star in TV’s Sex Education, gets the better lines and the audience’s sympathy as the reluctant would-be lover.

Gatwa’s portrayal of hypersexuality won’t be for everyone and it’s re-imagining of the Bard might cause some to blush although the Royal Shakespeare Company is 1 of the producers here which should perhaps lend weight to some of the theories contained here.

Director Daniel Evans predominantly sets the action in Marlowe’s writing room which is lit by more than 150 spotlights and this is occasionally funny, thoughtful and seductive material.

As a 2-hander its great cast have a lot of work to do, yet Born With Teeth boasts plenty of bite, much to chew and lots that’s entertaining to swallow.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy DMT Tickets
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