Born with Teeth

March 20 – October 13, 2024 Angus Bowmer Theatre

Suitability and Accessibility Director's Notes Creative Team Cast The Venue Education Events

“Madmen like us reinvent the world”

William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe are two of the greatest writers of their time. If only they’d stop bickering long enough to pick up a quill. In this razor-sharp imagined encounter by Liz Duffy Adams, the two men go head-to-head, fighting, flirting, and festering in the back room of a pub while attempting to collaborate on a play cycle. Set against the backdrop of an aging ruler, an oppressive police state, and constant threat of spies, Born with Teeth is a high-stakes dramatization of history that remarkably mirrors the present day. Don’t miss this sharp, sexy, dark comedy coming to life on the Angus Bowmer stage.

Approximate running time: 90 minutes, with no intermission.

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Suitability Suggestions

This fictional meeting of Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare contains sexuality/sensuality and strong language. Born with Teeth may be best enjoyed by well-prepared, mature high school students with some knowledge of the historical/political context of the story and who can handle the adult nature of the play.

For additional content warnings regarding violence or graphic depictions that may be upsetting to some audience members, please see our Content Warnings page (may contain spoilers).

Accessibility

The Angus Bowmer Theatre is outfitted with an elevator that takes patrons to either Row E or Row K.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is committed to accessibility. We recognize the needs of persons with disabilities and strive to make our facilities and productions accessible to all. Please visit our Accessibility page for details about 2024 programs and services as they develop.

Immerse

Two people sitting on a desk looking at each other.

Born with Teeth | Official Trailer

A person dressed in a dark, ornate costume with ruffled sleeves is smiling and clapping, facing another individual in a red outfit who is holding a dagger behind their back.

Born With Teeth | Audience Reaction

Born with Teeth | Behind the Scenes

Two people in matching outfits are suspended in the air, each holding onto a horizontal bar with handcuffed hands, illuminated against a dark background.

Photo: Born with Teeth

A person with long curly hair and a medieval-style outfit stands in the foreground, looking ahead confidently. In the background, another person is reading a document at a table set with various items, under warm, dramatic lighting.

Photo: Born with Teeth

A person with long curly hair stands behind another seated person, resting their hands on the seated person's shoulders. The seated person has short dark hair and is wearing a red, quilted medieval-style outfit. Both are looking in the same direction with serious expressions.

Photo: Born with Teeth

Two people in medieval-style outfits are at a wooden table. One person with long curly hair is sitting on the table, while the other person, with short dark hair, is seated on a stool and looking up at the first person. The table has books and metal cups on it.

Photo: Born with Teeth

A person with long curly hair and a medieval-style outfit is holding a black feather in one hand and a white feather in the other, looking at the white feather.

Photo: Born with Teeth

Two people in medieval-style outfits are at a wooden table. The person on the left, with long curly hair and a black outfit, is kneeling and looking at the person on the right. The person on the right, with short dark hair and a red quilted outfit, is sitting and looking into the distance.

Photo: Born with Teeth

Two people in medieval-style outfits are seated at opposite ends of a long wooden table. The person on the left gestures with one hand, while the person on the right looks at them. The table has metal cups and a folded red cloth.

Photo: Born with Teeth

A person in a light-colored shirt stands in the foreground, looking into the distance. Another person with long curly hair and a dark outfit sits at a table in the background, watching the standing person.

Photo: Born with Teeth

Director’s Notes

Welcome to Born with Teeth!

Liz Duffy Adams’s play Born with Teeth has already been on quite a journey. The only part of the journey that has been missing until now is you! I’ll explain.

It all started with the publication of the New Oxford Shakespeare: Modern Critical Edition. In it, there is a chapter on computer analysis of texts and their finding that the Henry VI plays were a collaboration between Shakespeare and his main rival, Christopher Marlowe! Liz was immediately inspired to write a play, and as soon as it was ready, she put together an intimate reading in New York that I attended. I fell in love with it right away and pitched it as a freelance director to over twenty regional theatres, to no avail.

When I became the new Artistic Director of Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas, I knew I wanted to do the world premiere of this play. It was a big hit in Houston, and then we brought the Alley production to the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and were invited to bring it to the Asolo in Sarasota, Florida, and to you at OSF. It has also had ten other productions at other theatres across the country.

It is a really nice success story for this wonderful play, but as I said above, what has been missing is you. There are so many Elizabethan references and Easter eggs. Liz and I have always known that the ideal audience for this play is one that has been trained up on Shakespeare, one that sees Shakespeare plays again and again and is steeped in that world. At previous theatres, we used to stand in the back listening to hear what audience got what joke. We’d high-five each other, “They got the Beaumont and Fletcher joke!” It really is a dream come true to have it here at OSF with an audience that will appreciate every moment.

I first came to OSF in 1995 when my wife was an actor in the company and I was still in graduate school. I fell in love with OSF and Ashland. The rest of Paige’s family fell in love too, and her parents, brother, aunts, and uncle all decided to move to Ashland with their families. I’ve been coming here every year for three decades now, and it is such a special place. I’ve been to theatres all over the U.S., all over Europe, in Japan, in Bali, and in Africa. There is nothing quite like OSF. It is unique in the world. The pandemic has been hard on theatres worldwide, but OSF, as a destination theatre that has also had forest fires to deal with, has really been dealt the worst hand of all. I’m so excited about our production of Born with Teeth and am excited about all the shows in Tim Bond’s first season and am so honored to be a part of it. I hope you, like me, treasure what we have here in Ashland and support OSF in whatever way you can so that it remains the unique place it is for many future generations.

—Rob Melrose