Ncuti Gatwa: Shakespeare and Marlowe were 'unapologetically queer'

Ncuti Gatwa has celebrated how William Shakespeare and his contemporary, Christopher Marlowe, were “unapologetically queer.”

The Doctor Who star is currently treading the boards on London’s West End in the play Born With Teeth . In it he stars as Christopher Marlow, the writer of Doctor Faustus, alongside Edward Bluebell as Shakespeare.

The play by Liz Duffy Adams centres on the relationship between the two playwrights in a series of imagined meetings while writing Shakespeare’s Henry VI .

Chatting to Vogue about taking on the role of Marlowe, Gatwa described the man as “a bad bitch,” claiming, “if Christopher Marlowe were alive today, he would’ve painted the town red.” Whether that’s true or not, the play certainly takes liberties with its storytelling seeing the two writers engage in