Editor’s note: This is Lucie K. Scheuer’s final Theater Review for the Rogue Valley Times.

“Born with Teeth,” now playing at the Angus Bowmer Theatre at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, is simply delicious — if you like performances that capture your attention and leave you dazed with their brilliance. There’s also dialog dotted with clever bon mots, a plot laced with secrets, espionage and political intrigue and a conclusion worthy of Hitchcock. And it all happens in just over 90 minutes.

The play is based on the premise that Christopher Marlowe (known in the play as Kit), genius poet and creator of blank verse, and William Shakespeare (Will, as he’s named in the play), the astoundingly prolific playwright, may have known one another and possibly collaborated. They did live at the same time and may have known a number of the same writers who created content to entertain the last Tudor monarch and her court.

Playwright Liz Duffy Adams had been studying the two word masters most of her life and had always suspected their might be a connection. When she read about a group of literary scholars, whose computer analysis suggested that Marlowe and Shakespeare’s work could be connected through their use of similar cadences and phrasing, sometimes present in both of their writings, Adams began to believe there may be more than a grain of truth to their findings, and thus was inspired to write the play.

The result is “Born with Teeth,” in which Shakespeare and Marlowe, two of the literary world’s greatest talents, come before us in a duel of minds accompanied by razor-sharp repartee, after they reluctantly agree to collaborate on writing various parts of the “Henry the VI” trilogy. Will needs the money. Kit needs Will, and is also curious about Will’s writing ability. On some level, Kit wishes to prove it isn’t better than his own.

“Born with Teeth” isn’t for everyone. It’s unapologetically brash, contains expletives and adult themes that suggest mutual male attraction and sexual desire. OSF offers a Content Warnings page on their website for all of their productions, but be aware that it may contain spoilers. You can find it at osfashland.org/en/engage-and-learn.

There are intimate moments somewhat evocative of the work of English writer D.H. Lawrence. These men are caught up in a dance of words, threats, arguments, suggestions of betrayal and paranoia. However, even with that, they are wildly attracted to one another.

Kit and Will are living in dangerous times. Queen Elizabeth’s father was Henry VIII, and she is truly her father’s daughter. Elizabeth has fostered an atmosphere in England that has pitted Protestants against Catholics. She has two major concerns. The first is not to be assassinated, as she is reviled by Catholics, and so is working diligently to kill them or keep them out of her country. Secondly, she is elderly and has no heirs. Advisors in her own court are eyeing the throne, like the second Earl of Essex, who at one time was her right-hand man.

As a result, the queen has spies everywhere. History indicates even Sir Walter Raleigh may have been one. In the play, Kit is already suspected of being a spy or conspiring with some.

When Kit gets together with Will, he is loath to say, “We all have targets on our backs.” He’s indicating the need to be careful meeting — Will is rumored to be a Catholic and Kit an atheist. “I don’t deny God,” Kit jokes, “I just don’t like him very much.”

They must also be careful what they write and about their feelings for each other. If you listen carefully and have lived long enough, you will draw correlations to the McCarthy era — which is eerily close to what’s happening here right now.

Who are the dynamic actors getting our minds revved up and our hearts to beat a little faster? Let’s start with Alex Purcell as Kit. Purcell performs as if the room is revolving around him. He’s wonderfully boisterous and maddeningly condescending. He just can’t wait to unload a wheelbarrow full of taunts and insults onto his new, meek writing partner, Will, whom he reviles and is attracted to at the same time. Purcell makes it clear: Kit is running on adrenaline and fear. He is fierce and also tortured. He is “tour de forcing” his way to a rather shocking conclusion.

Bradley James Tejeda as Will is a nice counterbalance to Purcell’s Kit. He is reluctant to engage with Kit at first. He recognizes the manic gesticulations — they are timed to set him off his game, intimidate him. Will puts up a noble fight. The two come head-to-head. As the play progresses, we are waiting to see where all this bubbling-over anger, paranoia and passion will take them.

Director Rob Melrose and Associate Director Anna Crace have realized the boldness behind what playwright Adams has done here. Adams has taken the concept of “possibility” to a new level. This is heady stuff, this “What if?” It opens up a creative portal in all directions. What if Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy had gotten out the old samovar and knocked out a few novels together? What if Emily Dickinson had sat down with Louisa May Alcott? We know it can work because years ago Steve Martin successfully wrote “Picasso at the Lapin Agile” — a play with Picasso dialoguing with Einstein.

Right now, we have “Born with Teeth.” It demands our attention and wears us out, and, like a roller coaster, makes us want to take the ride again.

Performances of “Born with Teeth” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 15 S. Pioneer St., Ashland, are scheduled through Oct. 13, in the Angus Bowmer Theatre. Tickets start at $35. Showtimes, ticket prices and information available at osfashland.org or at 800-219-8161. Group discounts available.

Editor’s note: This is Lucie K. Scheuer’s final Theater Review for the Rogue Valley Times.