Born with teeth

This play by Liz Duffy Adams, transferred from the RSC, has the second fictionalised re-imagining of William Shakespeare I have seen this week.  With Ncuti Gatwa as Marlowe and Edward Bluemel as Shakespeare, the play imagines the two great writers meeting to collaborate on a series of plays to please their patrons (apparently recent academic research speculates that Marlowe may have been a contributor to Henry IV parts 2 and 3).  This is an Elizabethan police state, with factions and spies, and Marlowe up to his neck in all of it.  Shakespeare, meanwhile, is still relatively early in his career and is somewhat overwhelmed by the far more famous Kit Marlowe.  

The 90 minutes of this play is an intense sparring match between the two poets as they challenge, flirt, fight, argue and occasionally collaborate.  There’s some flashy technology to open and to occasionally allow Shakespeare to break the fourth wall and speak directly to the audience.  But otherwise this depends heavily on the skill of the two actors to bring this to life, which they do very well as two men who are simultaneously attracted to and reject each other, even as they criticise, admire and improve each others work.  I enjoyed the debates about politics, religion, how to live a good life, crackling alongside the arguments about how to write well.  Whether this collaboration ever really happened or not,  I like the idea that Shakespeare learnt at least some of his craft from those who had gone before.

Bluemel plays Shakespeare as a quiet and thoughtful man, keeping his thoughts close, although driven to distraction by Marlowe, developing in confidence over the years, finding his own way to play the political games needed to survive.  Gatwa, meanwhile, shimmers as always. His Marlowe is passionate and larger than life, untrustworthy but charismatic and more than a bit full of himself right up until it all goes wrong for him .  Together the two actors make a great job of bringing this bit of historical fiction to life with bite and charisma.  It may never have happened like this, but for 90 minutes it feels like it could have. 

We found some excellent cheap seats by the way at Wyndams Theatre, tucked away in the balcony, supposedly side view with restricted leg room, but they were great (as long as you aren't too tall), and I will be looking for them again.

I have been at the London Film Festival all week and it was great to end the week with a bit of live theatre then a lovely stroll back across the river with this view that I don't think I will ever tire of.