Review: Alley Theatres Born With Teeth has a wicked bite – Houston Chronicle

Dylan Godwin as Will and Matthew Amendt as Kit in 'Born With Teeth' at the Alley Theater

A few years back, computer analyses came up with a tantalizing theory: William Shakespeare may have collaborated with fellow playwright Christopher Kit Marlowe on the three Henry VI history plays. This qualified as a bombshell in the literary and dramatic worlds. Marlowe, who died under mysterious circumstances at the age of 29, is widely considered Shakespeares equal, or even superior. The possibility that they put their heads together for a cycle of plays, no matter how weak that cycle may be, is a bloody big deal.

Born With Teeth, Liz Duffy Adams new play that had its world premiere at the Alley Theatres Neuhaus Theatre last Wednesday, puts the two writers in the same tavern for 90 minutes and lets the speculation, much of it based in the historical record, run wild. The play is above all a showcase for a couple of heroic performances by Matthew Amendt, as Kit, and Dylan Godwin, as Will. Theyre onstage for every moment of the production, thrusting and parrying, seducing and repelling, and even, on occasion, writing. This is daunting piece of work, intellectually and emotionally, and Amendt and Godwin ace it.

It helps that the writers personalities are so different, the better to set the stakes of their collaboration. Will is a pragmatist who seeks popularity and stability; he wants nothing to do with the dangerous currents of Elizabethan England, during which time an atheist and, depending on the exact period, a Catholic, could end up with his head on a spike.

'Born With Teeth'

When: Through June 5

Where: Alley Theatre, 615 Texas

Details: $49 and up; alleytheatre.org

Marlowe, on the other hand, is a libertine, and a spy, who courts danger and thumbs his nose at bourgeois morals. As the play begins, the swaggering Kit sees Will as a middling talent and a slave to convention. Will is drawn to Kit like a puppy dog but also wary of his collaborators reckless ways. Gradually, they let down their guards. Kit praises Will for making us fall in love with villains. I cant help loving them, Will replies. Somewhere, down below, Richard III smiles.

Chasing each other (literally and figuratively) around a long rectangular table, Kit, decked out in leather and spikes, and Will, looking more like a peasant, always find themselves returning to the hazards awaiting them in the world. Kit has dangerous friends, including Sir Walter Raleigh, one of those aforementioned atheists. Another was the playwright Thomas Kyd, referred to throughout the play as Tom, who, upon being arrested and tortured, betrayed his friend Marlowe. The specter of naming names looms large throughout Born With Teeth.

This is a play of ideas but also of passions. Kit and Will bicker and boast, but they also talk of settling down together and even share an impassioned kiss. Identities are in flux here, more so for Kit, who seems bored by the idea of settling on one persona. We can see that his self-destructive impulses only lead one way; less obvious are the lessons Will gleans from his writing partner, maneuvers that might lead to his survival. In the end, we know which writer history smiled upon. Born With Teeth has a great deal of fun postulating how that might have come to be.

Chris Vognar is a Houston-based writer.

Chris Vognar is a reporter for the Houston Chronicle.

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Review: Alley Theatres Born With Teeth has a wicked bite - Houston Chronicle