The Inheritance, an award-winning play by the American dramatist Matthew López, makes its premiere in Greece on 13 February at the Nikos Kourkoulos Stage of the Ziller Building. Τhe production bears the characteristic directorial stamp of Yannis Moschos, who oversees a multi-generational cast of talented actors. This deeply humane, moving, yet political work is a unique theatrical experience about the need we all have to love and be loved.

The Inheritance is inspired by the novel Howard's End, by the homosexual English writer E.M. Forster, reimagined by López to portray a group of gay men in New York in the late 2010s. Along with them, he has Forster himself appear on stage, helping the characters to tell their story. There are thus three generations implicated in the action: the one that came of age in the early 20th century, the later cohort of the 1980s, which grew up amidst the AIDS epidemic, and the men of today.

In The Inheritance, López speaks with striking honesty about the lives of gay men, exploring themes that resonate with everyone – regardless of gender or sexual orientation – such as love, loss, family, identity, individual responsibility, the sense of belonging, the preservation of historical memory, and – most of all – the right to love. His protagonists are full of contradictions, capable of the pettiest as well as the most generous behaviour, their actions both reasonable and reprehensible, just like anyone’s.

The writer never forgets the big picture, and the profound impact of the past and contemporary struggles of the LGBTQIA community on the lived experience of his characters. López invites us to reflect on the significance of one’s inheritance, the ways in which it defines the present and the future, but also about the personal responsibility we all bear for the history yet to be written.

The Inheritance has been an international hit, winning major awards such as the 2019 Olivier for Best New Play, as well as the Tony for Best Play in 2020, making López the first Latino author to earn this distinction.

The play will be performed in two parts, which can be seen either on separate days or in a single performance on Sundays.