Overview

• Liz Duffy Adams’s two-hander, starring Gatwa as Christopher Marlowe and Edward Bluemel as William Shakespeare, is playing at Wyndham’s Theatre through 1 November.
• The drama imagines the pair’s volatile partnership on the Henry VI plays, using Oxford University Press’s 2016 co-authorship attribution as its springboard.
• Critics describe Gatwa as a magnetic, high-voltage Marlowe, with Bluemel offering a quieter counterpoint as Shakespeare.
• Notices commend the research yet flag uneven pacing, limited emotional payoff and a stark modern staging of bright lights, projections and minimal set.
• The RSC production, directed by Daniel Evans, foregrounds a queer lens that cast members say reflects the writers’ work rather than inventing it.