Playful Productions, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Elizabeth Williams present
BORN WITH TEETH
BY LIZ DUFFY ADAMS
NCUTI GATWA as Christopher Marlowe.
EDWARD BLUEMEL as William Shakespeare.
In these dangerous times, who will burn brightest — and who will burn out?
NCUTI GATWA AND EDWARD BLUEMEL STAR IN NEW SUMMER BLOCKBUSTER ARRIVING IN THE WEST END FOR A STRICTLY LIMITED 11-WEEK SEASON FROM 13 AUGUST 2025
PLAYWRIGHTS CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE AND WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE GO HEAD-TO-HEAD IN LIZ DUFFY ADAMS’ IMAGINING OF TWO LITERARY ICONS AT ODDS WITH THEIR TIME
RSC CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, DANIEL EVANS, RETURNS TO THE WEST END TO DIRECT FOLLOWING HIS CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED PRODUCTIONS OF QUIZ, AMERICAN BUFFALO, SOUTH PACIFIC AND OUR GENERATION
2,000 TICKETS AVAILABLE AT £10 FOR 16 – 25 YEAR OLDS, SPONSORED BY TIKTOK
THE WEST END PREMIERE OF BORN WITH TEETH WILL GO ON SALE TO THE PUBLIC ON WEDNESDAY 16 APRIL WITH PRIORITY BOOKING FROM 11 APRIL
Producers Playful Productions, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Elizabeth Williams today announce the West End premiere of Born With Teeth featuring Ncuti Gatwa (Doctor Who, The Importance of Being Earnest) as Christopher Marlowe and Edward Bluemel (Killing Eve, Sex Education) as William Shakespeare.
This thrilling new play by Liz Duffy Adams imagines the relationship between two literary icons at odds with their time.
The production will see RSC Co-Artistic Director, Daniel Evans make his directorial debut for the company, following previous, critically acclaimed productions of Quiz, American Buffalo, South Pacific and Our Generation. Design is by the Olivier award-winning Joanna Scotcher and Lighting Design by Tony and Olivier award-winner Neil Austin. The Casting Director is Charlotte Sutton with further creative team to be announced.
Born With Teeth will play at Wyndham’s Theatre, a Delfont Mackintosh Theatre,for a strictly limited 11-week season until Saturday 1 November, with a first preview on Wednesday 13 August. Tickets go on sale on Wednesday 16 April 2025 with priority booking from Friday 11 April. For more information visit BornWithTeethPlay.com
Winter 1591.
It is a dangerous time for artists: the country is full of conspiracy and paranoia.
In the backroom of a pub, writing sensations Kit Marlowe and Will Shakespeare are forced together in a creative union. Alone, with the table as their stage and battlefield, they sharpen their pens – and let their genius fly.
Across three secret meetings, the rivals duel and flirt like their lives depend on it – and with spies everywhere, betrayal is so tempting.
Marking its West End premiere this summer, Liz Duffy Adams’ Born With Teeth is a thrilling imagining of the relationship between two literary icons at odds with their time.
Ncuti Gatwa said: “I’m so excited to be joining Born With Teeth alongside the amazing Edward Bluemel. Liz Duffy Adams has written an exceptional play that is smart, dark, sexy, sharp and funny! There’s a lot to get one’s teeth into. This is like no version of Shakespeare and Marlowe that I’ve ever seen before, and I can’t wait for audiences to join us for the ride”.
Edward Bluemel said: “I feel incredibly proud and excited to be working with Ncuti Gatwa and Daniel Evans on the European premiere of Born With Teeth. To be stepping into the shoes of a young William Shakespeare is a huge thrill for any actor and I can’t wait to get started. When I read Liz Duffy Adams’ script, I was instantly drawn into the high-stakes world of these two rival playwrights and the incredible, creative chemistry they share. There’s a real freshness and vitality to Liz’s writing that speaks directly to our world, and I can’t wait for West End audiences to experience it for the first time”.
Matthew Byam Shaw, Nia Janis and Nick Salmon from Playful Productions said: “It is wonderful to be continuing our relationship with the RSC and Daniel Evans with whom Matthew has been collaborating for nearly 20 years. We cannot wait for the entire team to bring this brilliant play to life on stage at Wyndham’s Theatre and for audiences to join them.”
Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey, Co-Artistic Directors of the Royal Shakespeare Company said: “We’re so excited to be bringing Liz Duffy Adams’ Born With Teeth to Wyndham’s Theatre alongside our partners Playful Productions and Elizabeth Williams for Grain of Sand Productions. As our seventh production to be presented in London in 2025, we look forward to sharing more of the RSC’s work with audiences in the capital and are thrilled that two such extraordinary actors as Ncuti Gatwa and Edward Bluemel will be joining us on that journey this summer.”
Elizabeth Williams said: “It is rare in my many years as a West End and Broadway producer to read a play like Liz Duffy Adams’ Born With Teeth which from the first sentence, thrills. Our playwright seems to have channeled directly from the 1590s this story of the intersection of the contemporary lives of these two great poets, Marlowe and Shakespeare, and it is brilliant in conception and ferociously sexy.”
Ncuti Gatwa (Christopher Marlowe) is a Rwandan Scottish BAFTA award-winning actor.
In 2023 audiences saw Ncuti unveiled as the fifteenth ‘Doctor’ as he bi-generated from David Tennant’s ‘Doctor’ at the end of ‘The Giggle’, the final of the Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials. Last year Ncuti was seen as ‘The Doctor’ in his first full season of Doctor Who on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK and Ireland, and across the world globally on Disney+. Ncuti won a BAFTA Cymru Award and was also nominated for a Critics Choice Award and BAFTA Scotland Audience Award for the role. Ncuti will reprise his role as ‘The Doctor’ in his second season of Doctor Who coming to the BBC and Disney+ from 12 April, where he will be joined by new companion ‘Belinda Chandra’ played by Varada Sethu, and by a host of guest stars including Jonah Hauer-King, Freddie Fox, Ariyon Bakare and Rose Ayling-Ellis.
Last year Ncuti wrapped production on Jay Roach’s movie The Roses. A reimagining of the iconic The War of the Roses the film stars Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch and will release in cinemas worldwide later this summer.
In 2024, Ncuti made his National Theatre debut as ‘Algernon Moncrieff’ in The Importance of Being Earnest. The play opened in November to rave reviews and was nominated for an Olivier Award in the category of ‘Best Revival’.
Ncuti is perhaps best known for his BAFTA award-winning role of ‘Eric Effiong’, one of the leading roles in Netflix’s hugely successful comedy series Sex Education. Created by Laurie Nunn the show also stars Asa Butterfield, Gillian Anderson and Emma Mackey. All four seasons of the show are available worldwide on Netflix. In 2023, he appeared in Barbie opposite Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, playing a version of ‘Ken’ in the film hit of the summer. He also played a guest role in the highly anticipated series, Masters of the Air for Apple TV+ opposite a cast led by Callum Turner, Barry Keoghan and Austin Butler.
In 2023 Ncuti performed at King Charles’ Coronation Concert, playing ‘Romeo’ opposite Mei Mac as his ‘Juliet’ in Romeo & Juliet for the Royal Shakespeare Company. The performance was the first ever collaboration between the royal patronages and included The Royal Ballet, The Royal Opera, The Royal College of Music & The Royal College of Art.
Edward Bluemel (William Shakespeare) trained at the prestigious Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama before making his screen debut as the lead in the British indie film Access all Areas (2017).
Most recently, Edward wrapped filming Netflix’s The Seven Dials Mystery, starring opposite Martin Freeman and Helena Bonham Carter. He was also seen as the co-lead in Amazon Prime’s My Lady Jane and starred as Levi in the hit BBC series We Might Regret This.
Edward gained widespread recognition as a series regular in Season 2 of BBC’S Killing Eve, appearing alongside Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer, and Fiona Shaw in the acclaimed espionage thriller. He also played Sean in Netflix’s Sex Education (Season 1 & 4), starring opposite Gillian Anderson and Asa Butterfield, and portrayed Marcus Whitmore in Sky One’s A Discovery of Witches.
On stage, Edward’s theatre credits include leading roles in Trevor Nunn’s critically acclaimed Love in Idleness (West End) and Touch (Soho Theatre).
Liz Duffy Adams (Playwright) is honoured to be making her UK debut with the RSC and Playful Productions. Her neo-Restoration comedy Or, premiered Off Broadway at WP Theater and has been produced more than 80 times since. Her Born With Teeth received a Edgerton Foundation New Play Award in an earlier version that premiered at the Alley Theater, Texas.
Other plays include Dog Act (Will Glickman Award for Best New Play, over 30 productions); Witch Hunt or, A Discourse On the Wonders of the Invisible World (Contemporary American Theater Festival); and The Salonnières (Greater Boston Theater Company). Adams has received a seven-year New Dramatists residency, a Women of Achievement Award, Lillian Hellman Award, New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship.
Publications include Or, in Smith & Kraus’ “Best Plays Of 2010”; Dog Act in “Geek Theater: Anthology of Science Fiction and Fantasy Plays”, Underwords Press 2014; Poodle With Guitar And Dark Glasses in Applause’s “Best American Short Plays 2000-2001”; and acting editions by TRW Plays, Playscripts, Inc., and Dramatists Play Service.
Adams received her MFA from the Yale School of Drama, and her BFA from New York University’s Experimental Theater Wing. She has dual Irish and American citizenship, and is based in New York City and Western Massachusetts.
Daniel Evans (Director) is Co-Artistic Director of the RSC. Previously, he was Artistic Director of Chichester Festival Theatre (2016-2023) and of Sheffield Theatres (2009-2016).
Theatre includes, as actor, for the Royal Court: Cleansed, 4.48 Psychosis, Other People, Where Do We Live?. As director, for the Royal Court: Black Superhero.
As actor, other theatre includes: Cardiff East, Peter Pan, Candide, Troilus and Cressida, The Merchant of Venice (National Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Coriolanus, Henry V, Cymbeline, Measure For Measure, Edward II (Royal Shakespeare Company), Ghosts (ETT), Merrily We Roll Along (Donmar), The Tempest (Sheffield/Old Vic), Sunday in the Park with George (Menier/West End/Studio 54)
As director, theatre includes: Our Generation (Chichester Festival Theatre & National), South Pacific (CFT & Sadler’s Wells), Quiz (CFT & Noel Coward), Fiddler on the Roof (CFT), American Buffalo (Wyndham’s), Othello, An Enemy of the People, The Effect, Show Boat (CFT & New London), Macbeth, Flowers for Mrs Harris, My Fair Lady, Racing Demon, This is My Family (Sheffield Theatres), The Light in the Piazza (RFH, LA Opera & Chicago Lyric Opera), Esther (Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru), Lovely Evening/In The Blue (Young Vic at Theatre 503)
Awards include: Olivier Awards for Best Actor in a Musical (Merrily We Roll Along and Sunday in the Park with George), UK Theatre Awards for Best Musical Production (Show Boat and Flowers for Mrs Harris)
Joanna Scotcher (Set and Costume Designer) trained at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
As a Designer, theatre includes Love’s Labour’s Lost (RSC); The Vortex, Doubt: A Parable, Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads (Chichester Festival Theatre); Black Superhero (Royal Court); Macbeth (Almeida); Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World (Theatre Royal Stratford East/UK tour); Women Beware Women (Shakespeare’s Globe); Love, Love, Love (Lyric Hammersmith); Emilia (Shakespeare’s Globe/West End); Mother Courage, Anna Karenina, The Rolling Stone (Royal Exchange/ Headlong); The Village (Stratford East); Cuttin’ It (Young Vic/Royal Court/Birmingham Rep/Sheffield Theatres); Winter, Two Endless Moments, A Harlem Dream (Young Vic); Pests (Clean Break/Royal Court/Royal Exchange); Katie Roche (Abbey, Dublin); Boys Will Be Boys (Bush/Headlong); The Railway Children (Kings Cross/Waterloo/Toronto).
Opera includes Described it to Death and Current Rising (Royal Opera House).
Joanna was awarded the Olivier Award for Best Costume Design for her work on Emilia and a WhatsOnStage Award for Best Set Designer for The Railway Children.
Neil Austin (Lighting Designer)
For the RSC: Love’s Labour’s Lost, King Lear, The Seagull (RSC/New London); Much Ado About Nothing (RSC/Novello); King John, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (RSC).
Theatre credits include Inside No.9: Stage Fright (Wyndham’s Theatre); Shifters (Duke of York’s Theatre); Midnight in the Garden of Good And Evil (Goodman Theatre, Chicago); Shifters (Bush Theatre); The Enfield Haunting (The Ambassadors Theatre); The Pillowman (Duke of York’s Theatre); The Secret Life of Bees (Almeida Theatre); Piaf (Preludio, Buenos Aires); Tammy Faye (Almeida); Medea (@Sohoplace); Frozen (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace); Company, Frost/Nixon (Gielgud); Rosmersholm, Ink, No Man’s Land (Duke of York’s); Leopoldstadt, Red, The Weir, Hamlet, Madame de Sade, Twelfth Night (Wyndham’s); The Night of the Iguana, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Labour of Love, Photograph 51, Shakespeare in Love, Henry V (Noël Coward); The Goat, Great Britain, Japes (Haymarket); Travesties, A Life in the Theatre (Apollo); Death and the Maiden, The Children’s Hour (Comedy). Other theatres: The 47th (The Old Vic); Tammy Faye: The Musical, The Hunt, Albion, Ink, The Treatment, Medea (Almeida); After Life, Translations, Three Days in the Country, Rules for Living, Dara, Liolà, Children of the Sun, The Cherry Orchard, Women Beware Women, London Assurance, The White Guard, Oedipus, Philistines, The Man of Mode, Thérèse Raquin (National Theatre); Henry IV, Julius Caesar, The Night Alive, Spelling Bee, King Lear, Passion, The Wild Duck, After Miss Julie, Caligula (Donmar Warehouse).
Broadway includes: Leopoldstadt, Company, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Ink, Travesties, Hughie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Evita, Red, Hamlet, The Seafarer, Frost/Nixon.
Awards include: 2019 Tony Award for Ink, 2018 Tony Award, 2017 Olivier Award for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, 2011 Laurence Olivier Award for The White Guard, and 2010 Tony Award for Red.