←Recommendations of Born With Teeth

Born With Teeth threw me into a world of emotion, of betrayal, of false (or true, what is true?) love and a battle for legacy. Each character is colorful- Will with his practicality, his history, his talent, and Kit with his seductive manipulation, a web he becomes caught in. Wonderful play- it does justice for the history it bases itself on.

"I suppose I thought we could both be kings." -- I can't remember the last time I was so locked in while reading a script, I can't imagine what it would be like to see it actually performed. Hopefully I'll get to find out. People who don't care about Shakespeare are always trying and failing to make Shakespeare sexy and modern and irreverent, and Adams succeeds BY caring, by virtue of taking Marlowe and Shakespeare very seriously, not with worship but with incisive, deliberate recklessness.

I am a huge fan of Liz Duffy Adams, and this script is so deserving of all of the attention it is getting right now. Even reading it on the page the scenes feel electric. Both Shakespeare and Marlowe seem like such fun characters to play. The twists and turns of this script are dynamite! I hope to see it staged soon.

"Born With Teeth" is a gripping and thought-provoking play that examines the possible working relationship between William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlow. It is a testament to Adams’ ability to blend historical fact with compelling fiction, creating a narrative that is both educational and highly entertaining.

Born with Teeth speculates on the competitive and possibly collaborative relationship between William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlow. They are ambitious playwrights trying to negotiate the dangerous, autocratic times of Elizabethan England. How they worked and survived is fascinating to imagine with this play presenting them full of life and intrigue. The ending floored me.

I saw this play at Seattle's ArtsWest Theatre in February 2024. I thought I was in for a bitingly dark romantic comedy, but what I was really in for was a whirlwind of both theatrical genius and emotional punches. Adams does a wonderful job of both playing to and subverting our expectations of these two, larger-than-life historical figures, awing us with their literary and political brilliance while making us profoundly feel their, and our, humanity.

Adams has constructed a phenomenal work. Two men must dance around taboo topics, sometimes talking about two or even more at once. It is a satisfying puzzle that makes this a play worth reading or seeing as much as possible.

Unrelenting, affecting, and endlessly clever - Born With Teeth was captivating from the first page until the last, and refused to leave my head even after I put down the script.

Wow. Talk about a play that lights a fuze and just keeps on burning until the final moment. The pace and intensity must just leave the audience breathless. It seems like such a no-brainer choice for a season--two-hander, easy to cast, fun and witty and dark and dangerous, all at once.

Disappointed that I'd left Texas just ahead of Liz Duffy Adams' Born With Teeth's opening at The Alley, I instead read it and am now even more tortured that I didn't see it. What excitement and energy she packs into not just her gripping story of murder, torture, political intrigue, and the relationship between 2 iconic treasures, but her characterizations of these Icons (Will & Kit) are spellbindingly intimate and compelling. This script deserves many more productions. I will go out of my way to see it.