Ncuti Gatwa and Edward Bluemel star in the West End premiere of Liz Duffy Adams’ Born With Teeth. Playing a strictly limited 11-week season at the Wyndham’s Theatre, book your official tickets today!
Winter, 1591. England is a tinderbox of religious persecution, political unrest, and whispered treason. In a shadowy backroom of a London pub, two of the country’s most brilliant—and dangerous—young writers are brought together in secret: Christopher Marlowe, the bold, reckless, and state-employed playwright-spy, and William Shakespeare, the ambitious newcomer with everything to prove.
Over the course of three covert meetings, these literary titans circle each other in a volatile mix of rivalry, flirtation, and creative fervor. With only a table between them, their words become weapons and seductions, as they test boundaries—personal, political, and poetic. As their connection deepens, so does the danger. With spies on every corner and betrayal only ever a heartbeat away, their union—professional and otherwise—could either make their legends... or cost them their lives.
A gripping two-hander pulsing with wit, tension, and erotic undercurrents, Born With Teeth imagines the combustible alchemy of genius, desire, and fear in a time when every word could be your last.
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.
3 Sep, 2025 | By Sian McBride
Previews are underway for Liz Duffy Adams’ Born With Teeth at Wyndham’s Theatre, and with today’s release of production photos, audiences can finally get a glimpse of the charged world Marlowe (Ncuti Gatwa) and Shakespeare (Edward Bluemel) inhabit.
Directed by Daniel Evans, this biting two-hander imagines an unlikely secret meeting between Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare in the icy winter of 1591. Political danger, artistic rivalry and conspiratorial whispers swirl around them, while these literary giants size each other up in a battle of words. Think of a spy thriller, but with sonnets.
18 Aug, 2025 | By Sian McBride
Marking its West End premiere this summer, Born With Teeth is a fiery, fast-paced two-hander that pits two of England's greatest literary minds against one another. Starring Ncuti Gatwa and Edward Bluemel, here is everything you need to know about London’s hottest new play.
Following its 2021 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award win, Born With Teeth premiered at the Alley Theatre in Texas. Instantly catching the attention of critics and audiences alike, Liz Duffy Adams’ play was hailed for its sharp dialogue, intellectual seduction, and brilliant character work. It became a standout new work, lauded for both its literary sophistication and emotional impact, and was quickly produced an incredible 80 times! The play now makes its transatlantic leap to London, bringing its taut and tantalising energy to a whole new audience.
Set in the chilling winter of 1591. England is on edge - paranoia, conspiracy, and political suspicion are in the air. In this fraught atmosphere, two rising stars of the Elizabethan stage - Christopher “Kit” Marlowe and William Shakespeare - are thrown together in the backroom of a tavern. With nothing but a table between them, they are tasked with collaborating, but what ensues is far from peaceful.
They are rivals, they are muses, they are potential threats to each other - and in a world where spies lurk in every corner and loyalty is a fragile thing, every word they write could be a weapon, every line a trap. Over the course of three secret meetings, their minds clash and ignite, navigating ambition, flirtation, and the ever-looming spectre of betrayal.
16 Apr, 2025 | By Sian McBride
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