Virtually everyone has had the experience of binge-watching a Netflix TV series or is at least familiar with the concept. Watching The Inheritance, by US playwright Matthew López, is arguably its theatrical equivalent.
This production of The Inheritance, the first staged in Sydney, is an incredible 385 minutes long and is split into two parts. With two intervals in each part, The Inheritance is effectively presented across six episodes.
But while it’s the longest play most avid theatregoers will have seen since Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, this production is so well-staged and packs so much into its almost seven hours, that the experience is not the slog one may expect.
In fact, it’s exciting, energising and deeply moving. After each interval, one can’t wait to see the next episode.
The length of the play is not the only kinship The Inheritance shares with Angels in America. Like Angels, it’s set in New York City and its themes include homophobia and the impacts of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Like Angels, it contains nudity, sex scenes, drug use and explicit language.
But it’s also quite different. Inspired by E M Forster’s 1910 novel Howards End, The Inheritance is set mainly in the 2010s. It presents a contemporary vision of New York City’s gay community – a cohort whose lives have been transformed by the internet, increasing acceptance of homosexuality and, perhaps most of all, Truvada.
The Inheritance swirls around two key characters: the hopeful idealist Eric (Teale Howie) and his social-climbing playwright boyfriend Toby (Ryan Panizza). As they traverse life as a young couple in the Big Apple, we see friendships and families being formed, people and relationships come and go, careers being made and destroyed.
Integral to the story are Walter (Simon Burke) and Henry (John Adam) – a wealthy, older gay couple who come to have a huge bearing on the young couple, particularly Eric.
Burke also plays the author Forster, who functions as a kind of spectral touchstone, imparting wisdom and pithy observations down the years to the younger gay men in the play.
The performances are stupendous; the actors stun in their capacity to generate love, disdain, disgust and hope for their characters.
Among the most notable are Tom Rodgers – who eats up the scenery with his dual roles of Adam/Leo – and Vanessa Dowling, whose turn as the regretful but circumspect mother of a son lost to AIDS had much of the audience in tears.
Arguably, another key character is a house in the countryside (the titular inheritance) outside New York. During the height of HIV/AIDS, the house functioned as a place for young gay men to exit the world with some semblance of dignity.
In the 21st century, it’s a modern day version of Howards End, the country house in Forster’s novel. It’s once again a place for young gay men to find refuge and is represented in a beautiful, surprising way by set designer Kate Beere.
Much of The Inheritance is surprising. Reading the synopsis, one may feel the territory it traverses is well-trodden and that nothing new can be mined from it.
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If so, one would be wrong. The Inheritance is a theatrical landmark. Director Shane Anthony, the creative team and cast of 13 have done López and his story proud. The Inheritance makes incredible demands of both the actors and the audience – but every minute is worth it.
The Inheritance by Matthew López
Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre, Corner City Road and Cleveland Street, Chippendale NSW
Producers: Shane Anthony, Daniel Cottier, Gus Murray
Director and Movement Director: Shane Anthony
Set Design: Kate Beere
Set Construction: Aron Murray, Tom Fahy
Costume Design: Tim Chappel
Lighting Design: Alex Berlage
Composition: Damien Lane
Sound Design: Jessica Pizzinga
Stage Management: Saz Watson
Dialect Coach: Linda Nicholls-Gidley
Fight Choreography: Tim Dashwood
Intimacy Co-Ordinator: Chlöe Dallimore
Cast: John Adam, Simon Burke, Teale Howie, Ryan Panizza, Tom Rodgers, Zoran Jevtic, Quinton Rofail Rich, Matthew McDonald, Elijah Williams, Jack Mitsch, Bayley Prendergast, Jack Richardson, Vanessa Downing
Tickets: $39-$65
The Inheritance will be performed until 30 November 2024.
