Shakespeare and Marlowe write together in Asolo’s ‘Born With Teeth’

The notion that William Shakespeare did not write some or all of the plays attributed to him has been a constant debate for centuries, triggering numerous essays, films, TV series and plays.

In Sarasota, two plays raise questions about the authorship of his plays. Urbanite Theatre is presenting the world premiere of “Judith,” a one-person show that suggests that Shakespeare’s fictional sister, Judith, actually wrote his plays.

And now Asolo Repertory Theatre prepares to open “Born With Teeth,” Liz Duffy Adams’ intense comical drama that promotes the theory that Shakespeare collaborated with his contemporary and rival Christopher Marlowe to write the three “Henry VI” plays.

Adams has said she based her play on a study that used computers to measure elements of the plays. By comparing language and word usage the study proved that Marlowe and Shakespeare wrote the plays together.

In 2017, Oxford University Press announced that its New Oxford Shakespeare would credit the three plays to both writers. The plays have long been credited to Shakespeare alone. They are among his earliest works when he was an actor and fledgling playwright, while Marlowe was more experienced and more widely known. They were the same age.

“It’s a deeply mysterious and enthralling time period, really filled with so many questions,” said Matthew Amendt, who plays Marlowe opposite Dylan Godwin as Shakespeare. “You can see the moment Marlowe was hired to become a spy, the moment he started getting government money. But so much is missing, especially around Shakespeare. That’s endlessly compelling to investigate as actors.”

The two first worked together in the 2022 world premiere production of “Born With Teeth” at Houston’s Alley Theatre, where they collaborated with artistic director Rob Melrose. They performed a second production in 2023 with Melrose at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, where Amendt was once a theater student, and now the three bring the show to Sarasota’s Asolo Repertory Theatre.

The play is set in a tavern where they begin to hash out their ideas and write, while also revealing more about themselves, their views and emotions, and the challenging times in which they live.

“They’re on stage for every moment of the production, thrusting and parrying, seducing and repelling, and even, on occasion, writing,” The Houston Chronicle wrote of the world premiere. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune compared the play to a “literary life-or-death cage match. The competition draws them closer and that leads to a complicated desire to both consume and extinguish each other.”

The two actors met for the first time when they started rehearsals at the Alley, where Godwin has been a resident company member for 15 seasons.

“We’ve become such good friends. He’s been the biggest gift out of this,” Godwin said of Amendt. “We really like each other and we talk all the time and we intensify our talking before we go into the play again.”

Usually, regional theaters produce a play for a set number of weeks before the actors move on to other projects. “Every couple of years, there’s a two-hander that emerges that lots of theaters like to do,” Amendt said. “A few years ago I did ‘Red’ and it’s usually a special experience for actors, working so intimately with one actor. It’s either really wonderful or really awful. I’m just so blessed this has worked out.”

The “Henry VI” plays are not often produced, and audiences “need to know absolutely nothing” about them, Shakespeare or Marlowe, the actors said. “It enriches the experience if you do,” Amendt said. “It’s about art in an authoritarian regime. Will has had one little bit of success at that point. There’s no comparison to the star Marlowe is.”

Amendt said he performed in a production of Marlowe’s “Tamburlaine,” which prompted him to start learning more about both writers.

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“Shakespeare’s genius was to have this radical compassion for people. Marlowe is not that. There’s a righteous symbolist rage about his work. In ‘Tamburlaine’ I was killed six times and ended up with a ball gag. They burned the Quran on stage, which is in the script. It’s astonishingly punk. He was daring someone to tell him no, and at the same time we know he was a spy working for the government. He could talk about queer issues, talk about drugs, sex, violence.”

Marlowe was assassinated at age 27 in a bar. “Just like all of our rock stars. Shakespeare’s work gets to mature and become some of the greatest words sequenced in the English language,” Amendt said.

Godwin said Marlowe’s life and views are all over his work. “Shakespeare has a bit more compassion for his characters. Shakespeare wants to disappear from his plays and Marlowe wants to expose himself. Shakespeare narrates this play and you’ll be surprised by your notions of who you think he is and who he is in the actual practice of things.”

‘Born With Teeth’

By Liz Duffy Adams. Directed by Rob Melrose. Runs Feb. 9-March 29 at Asolo Rep Theatre, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Tickets are $29-$95. 941-351-8000; asolorep.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota’s Asolo Rep offers new ideas on who wrote Shakespeare plays