What did you think of the show?
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theatreguys 
Born with Teeth
Inspite of rather poor critics comments I enjoyed the play. Could have done without the over loud sound introduction. Very interesting to see supposed relationships between Marlowe and Shakespeare. Knew nothing of Marlowe`s life so useful to look up more on that. Both actors excellent and Marlowe`s athletics outstanding!
Wendy Norris
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Born with Teeth
I remember Richard McCabe’s cynical, world weary Marlowe worshipping Dog in Peter Whelan’s School of Night: what a contrast with the self-satisfied, larger than life version of Ncuti Gatwa! I liked his character development , from his sneering assessment of Shakespeare’s talent to grudging admiration and growing attachment. I found the relationship between the two believable and touching and much admired Edward Bluemel’s sensitive portrayal. I could have done without the overloud videoclips but enjoyed the production’s energy and found it irresistibly sexy!
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Born with Teeth
It was a very stimulating afternoon at Wyndham’s yesterday with Marlowe and Shakespeare.
The play’s author had hit on a clever conceit to bring the two men together and although the play was a little repetitive in its themes, I was gripped by the production and believed the actors.
In particular Mr Bluemel caught my attention with his subtle, almost unobtrusive, take on Shakespeare’s rise to fame. I hope to see him again. Mr Gatwa is a showier performer of course and dare I say shallower as a result, but it was a brilliant idea of Daniel Evans’ to pair them together.
Nick
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Born with Teeth
I agree, of course, with much of what Garth has said about Born with Teeth. Two charismatic stars, perfectly cast, fluid direction and staging and enough physical gymnastics (including one leap off the table that surely required an additional insurance premium) to keep audience members on the edge of their seats.
BUT, at times, I was irritated by the play itself. The author assumed a knowledge of “Tom” (Kyd?) and “Hollinshed” on the part of the audience while reminding us regularly that Shakespeare was destined for greatness while Marlowe’s star would wane which surely anyone buying a ticket would know? The somewhat heavy handed references to Deptford (where Marlowe met his grisly end) in the third act compounded my irritation.
The play is of course part of the current fashion for 90 minute, no interval productions but could this work have taken inspiration from its subjects and included more exposition and even an interval when small beer could have been sold in the bar?
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Born with Teeth
I confess that, accidentally on purpose, I read some media reviews of the play before seeing it, noting that several whimpered that it didn’t have a rationale or didn’t dig deep enough.
Such complaints surely betray a misunderstanding of the nature of the piece. What did Oscar say? – “It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.” The play is a wonderful fictional romp, wonderfully realised by director and by the two performers alike, full of humour and whimsicality, bromanticism, athleticism, verbal and physical fisticuffs, Bardish/Marlovian quotations, and quick-fire timing. It is – I assume – not intended to be a sort of George Bernard Shaw-style bit of penetrating intellectual archaeology or an edition of Melvyn Bragg’s In Our Time. It broadly lives with the rather sketchy knowledge we already have about the two playwrights and didn’t reveal anything (much) that we didn’t know or suspect. But put such scraps together imaginatively, and you’ve got an exhilarating hour and a half. It’s a perfect fit for Wyndham’s and for a West End audience. It’s hard to imagine it being better done.
Garth
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Mr Sloane
Cook`s coaches did us proud for the first trip sans Fredo. But did miss your comments and humour on the journeys, also missed by the coach driver. The play was produced with an amazing set( must have been fun setting it up!) giving an idea of sleaze and poverty. The play must have been quite arresting when orton put it on in the 60`s. Today I felt it was rather like a prequel to Eastenders! The story is very much of modern life, Orton was ahead of his time. Tamsin Outhwaite portrayed her part well and brought the humour out in the script. I enjoyed it. Thank you Fredo for your on line preplay comments, much appreciated.
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The first act was a slow starter but the second act made up for that . The extraordinary set when entering the house was explained by Kemp that the builder ran out of money so theirs was the only house standing amongst the fly tipping. All became clear that both Ed and Kath had sexual designs on Mr Sloane .They both achieved this by tying Mr Sloane to them both by lying to the authorities about how Kemp, who knew of Mr Sloane’s previous form ,had fallen down the stairs and not murdered by the young lodger. Excellent acting by the four cast members .Very pleasing to see Tamzin Outhwaite in such a role, also Jordan Stephen’s who has many strings to his bow besides acting
Enjoyable afternoon at the theatre and Cooks Coaches fulfilled their easy booking travel to and from the theatre.
Good to see you Fredo and Mike
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Mr Sloane
I do agree with Garth that I felt the period should have been more strongly presented; we had Kemp toasting his crumpet with a toasting fork (I did that too!) and an old gramophone, conventional furniture, so why not the kind of decor featured in many films and plays involving landladies and boarders – Room at the Top, the Birthday Party, Deep Blue Sea, Separate Tables, and films of Terence Davies? I saw no advantage of it being in the round, nor the tangle of chairs suspended above the set. I think it needed flowery wallpaper and busy carpets.
I also found the first part over long and noticed that there was little in the way of laughter from the audience. It was establishing the characters but could have been done more briefly. Things certainly picked up after the interval and the performances were great. My favourite actor (like Garth’s – I do not INTEND to echo him) was Daniel Cerqueir, whose spivvy dialogue and demeanour, was priceless. His threatening behaviour towards Mr Sloane, followed by quick forgiveness, was funny. Tamzin Outhwaite amusingly conveyed the thin veneer of polite respectability, while desperate to hang onto Mr. Sloane, no matter what. Poor Kemp was truly left out of the action (apart from being killed). Jordan Stephens played Mr Sloane as a cheerful amoral man, always aware of where the main chance lay. His initial garb of nice suit and sleeveless pully (for Kath) and his leathers elsewhere was a nice touch. Of course, the lie of Kemp falling down the stairs would have been quickly exposed, even in those earlier days of forensic science. BUT all in all it was a very enjoyable afternoon, and I liked the symbolism of the 3 characters being bound up together, with nobody getting exactly what they really want.
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Entertaining Mr Sloane
Giving the bourgeoisie a jolt was Joe Orton’s mission as a dramatist. Startling as this play must have been in 1964, we theatregoers are (I guess) today less shockable. Was this production an attempt to find new ways of undermining our complacency?
Well, I wasn’t shocked, but I was (ahem) entertained, especially so in the second half (there did seem to be an awful lot of words but they were pretty well all pleasingly subversive). I much enjoyed the actors’ work in finding layers of innuendo, irony and improbability. Orton’s highly polished, formalised, bemusing speech forms were perhaps best captured by Daniel Cerqueira as the beady Ed, his unrevealed source of funds rather better concealed than his lustful feelings. All the players put so much into their roles. That said, I wanted Jordan Stephens as Sloane to be more disconcertingly enigmatic, though it was clear enough that his extramural activities were indeed a world away from Kath’s spare room.
Did being performed in the round add very much, beyond a bit of space for body-popping? I’m open to persuasion that a more claustrophobic setting would have been inappropriate. Orton’s method was to place extraordinary events in ordinary surroundings, upturning the “real” and introducing weird, disorienting and lurid happenings that catch us unawares. I wanted rather more of that sensation from this production.
Garth
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Entertaining Mr Sloane Wednesday 9 October – Young Vic
Excellent production of this Joe Orton play. It was well acted, and an interesting concept in the round. We did find the early part of the play a little slow but perhaps this is just the start introducing us to the characters. However it soon picked up the pace and carried on till the end, I was particularly interested to see this production because I directed it for the Southend Shakespeare Company in 2012.
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Titus Andronicus
I was grateful to read Fredo’s comments, courtesy of Wikipedia on this play. The writer compared it to the equivalent of a Hammer Horror movie, and the eminent Garth has brought Bruce Lee into the mix. I therefore wondered whether there would be nervous laughter as often happens (I have told) in those movies. But not a bit of it. The mechanical means of torture clanking away prior to the acts send the appropriate chills through the spine, and the dreadful assault on Lavinia was a tough watch. John Hodgkinson is a tall and commanding presence, and quite different from SR Beale, and I felt that a large gear change must have happened after his departure. Beale would have produced a more nuanced performance, but I was impressed by the clarity of Hogkinson’s diction. I liked the thrust stage, which brought the action really close to the audience. I accepted immediately the gender swap of Marcus to Marcia and felt that Emma Fielding produced a layer of sympathy largely missing elsewhere. But I cannot answer Mike’s question as to WHY, other than we are in 2025! The production produced a lot of energy through sound, lighting and movement and I found it gripping. But , Lavinia apart, not moving. And perhaps the devil has the bet part, as Ken Nwosu as Aaron was enjoyably evil right to the end, with his celebration of his own evil nature, even as he went to his death.
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Titus Andronicus
The drama affects us in sundry and unpredictable ways. An elderly lady sitting next to me at the matinee on Thursday 25th muttered as she picked up her walking stick after the curtain fell: “My weapon of mass destruction.….” During the interval she had turned to me and said: “I’ve been trying to remember in which play two of the characters get cooked in a pie.” I was able to tell her the name of the play……. And then I asked her what she was intending to have for supper. She said in a dry firm tone: “Omelette.”
I couldn’t find quite such a succinct reaction for myself. My first thought was that the production acknowledged that the play may not be as cathartic as some of the Bard’s other tragedies. It’s not easy to empathise with any of the characters beyond the unfortunate Lavinia. Titus himself is little better than those around him. One’s tempted to think that the sheer barbarity of the action is beyond belief – until one reflects on what the world witnessed in the 20th century and what we are witnessing today.
Rather cleverly, this production presents the play as a vicious power struggle with fantasy knobs on – wild demonic dances, long-distance lethal zapping and callisthenic movements that would not disgrace a Bruce Lee movie. I felt that it worked pretty well, despite teetering on the brink of comedy at moments. Distancing the horrific events from “reality” may be a way of protecting the tender audience, but what goes on gets painfully close to the contemporary world. We’re familiar with raw political rivalries and ambitions (the opening scene, for example – who can we think of today who declares that he hates his opponents?) and with the undisguised racism in the text in its demonisation of the (admittedly villainous) Aaron the Moor (and those naughty Goths too).
The uncluttered thrust stage worked well as a setting, even though mopping up so much spilt blood looked to be hard work. The sinister chainsaw and those menacing hooks and chains descending from the flies did their stuff. And the players too were energetic and fully into their roles. John Hodgkinson as Titus towered above most of the rest of the cast in clarity of speech, even though he did not offer much by way of depth in characterisation. Emma Fielding as Titus’s sibling (see Mike’s remarks) was effective in her consolation of poor mutilated Lavinia (Letty Thomas). Wendy Kweh was suitably vicious as Tamora, a good match for Saturninus (Max Bennett). As Aaron, who does so much to drive the play along, Ken Nwosu exuded force and guile – nothing became him more than his descent into that dreaded hole in the centre of the stage.
A final thought. A lorra, lorra people got killed and otherwise damaged in the play……among the wounded, alas, was the iambic pentameter. As a crusty old wrinkly, I can remember a time when the RSC prided itself on its command in the speaking of blank verse. Today, perhaps, not so much.
Garth
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Titus Andronicus
My appreciation of the production grew as the bloody body count increased, so by the finale I had ‘enjoyed’ this gore-fest. I will let others explain their appreciation but for me there were irritations. I thought some of the lesser male casting was too lightweight giving an impression of secondments from an earnest sixth-form athletics team. And then there was Marcus Andronicus, Titus’s brother. Except he wasn’t. A major member of the Andronicus family had had their gender changed! He was now Marcia played by the diminutive Emma Fielding. (Wouldn’t Marcia Andronicus be a great name for one of RuPaul’s Drag Race contestants?!) I know all female roles were played by males back in the Bard’s day, but this reversal for 2025 is ludicrous. Ms Fielding was swallowed by a long grey trench-coat and looked worried her carefully styled hair might be disturbed by the violence and gore. Her role needed presence and she is an accomplished actor, but here she looked like an interloper in a boy’s game. Maybe she was cast to match the original Titus (Simon Russel Beale) but next to the 6foot+ John Hodgkinson she was dwarfed in stature and character. Can someone please explain the necessity of the gender change, preferably referencing Shakespeare and perhaps logic?
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Titus Andronicus
Surprisingly, I found Titus uplifting, so many elements worked really well
Sandra
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Monica and Robin
Titus Andronicus.
Is is thought to be Shakespeare’s first tragedy. It was initially very popular but by the 17th Century it was not well received. The Victorian era disapproved of it largely because of its graphic violence. Its reputation began to improve around the middle of the 20th Century but it still is one of Shakespeare’s least respected and played play.
Having read Fredo’s summary of the play of which there is so much to take in re the number of characters and the amount of blood shed and gratuitous violence. So we were surprised it was sort of easy to follow which was due to the stellar performances by all the cast, which was outstanding and deserved the standing ovation. Even the blood thirsty and violent scenes were extremely well orchestrated and cleverly portrayed.
Must say the diction was very clear (they didn’t seem to be ‘miked’ up? apart from the young boy Lucius) but Marcia, some had difficulty at times hearing. It is a play to be remembered and well worth seeing, well this production?
Thank you Fredo and Mike for giving us eight the opportunity, there would have been one more but was not able to come. So pleased we have seen it.
Made a change going on the A127 and the North Circular!
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Monica & Robin
Juniper Blood
Better late than never. I did enjoyed the play very much especially it is so topical. As always from The Donmar, wonderfully acted with interesting and unusual staging. Takes some doing to sort of semi-rebuild it every night. Luckily they are short productions? Robin was not quite so keen though always enjoys their productions.
Boo hoo your last trip on the coach but of course we shall still be seeing you both. Thank you for the summary for Titus and Andronicus.
What an experience we have had on all your theatre trips. Good, bad or indifferent, all thoroughly enjoyable trips. Thank you Fredo and Mike for giving us the opportunity.
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Juniper Blood
We both enjoyed this production at the Donmar, the set was ingenious and impressive. It took a while for the story to gel’ with us at first but Sam Troughton was very impressive as the totally unrealistic, environmentalist. The
neighbour tried to talk “sense “ into the couple but only Ruth eventually realised that it was an unrealistic dream and left him. An interesting plot well acted .
It was rather a poignant evening as it was our final ‘escorted’ visit with Fredo and Mike and all the more enjoyable for that, Thank you both for opening our eyes to so many original productions, many of which we would never have enjoyed without you.
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Juniper Blood
The Donmar draws you immediately into this thought-provoking play, beautifully acted by the five performers with their differing views of how to save the planet. As each character argues their reasons you find your own thoughts and opinions switching from one to the other. It is a very clever play which forms the basis of many current debates, arguments and discussions in our own lives. The final scene was one that made me gasp and want to cry out – fortunately I didn’t! An absolute winner Fredo and Mike, thank you so much. We can’t believe we won’t be accompanying you to any more productions with your brilliant, witty and again, thought provoking narratives. Good luck for the future both of you and enjoy your retirement, you so deserve it. Thanks once more – it’s been a blast!!
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Sorry didn’t put name of the show in my comments yesterday
Juniper Blood
After a slow first act this production ramped up.The subject about environmental issues is very topical at the moment.Most has been said by previous comments.Lip’s reversal on killing himself when he saw his estranged daughter Connie, but where did it go from there? It was quite unnerving if Lip’s(Sam Troughton) focused on one in the audience. Excellent acting by all. The sound of birdsong and the background aroma of the countryside added to the atmosphere throughout.Having second thoughts about going to a Donmar production isn’t an option as this little gem never fails to deliver for us .
Thank you for broadening our horizons in theatre over many years.
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After a slow first act this production ramped up .The subject about environmental issues very topical at the moment. Most has been said by previous comments. Lip’s reversal on killing himself when he saw his estranged daughter, Connie but where did it go from there? It was quite unnerving if Lip’s ( Sam Troughton )gaze focused on one in the audience. Excellent acting by all .The sound of bird song and the background aroma of the countryside added to the atmosphere throughout. Having second thoughts about going to a Donmar production isn’t an option as this little gem never fails to deliver for us .
Thank you for broadening our horizons in theatre over many years .
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