Evolution Theatre Company tackles 'ambitious' two-part drama 'The Inheritance'

Evolution Theatre Company has tackled challenging works, but nothing as ambitious in size and scope as “The Inheritance,” a widely acclaimed award winner for best play.

The professional troupe will present the Ohio premiere of Matthew Lopez’s two-part drama, running Thursday through Sept. 16 (Part 1) and Sept. 21-30 (Part 2) at Dublin’s Abbey Theater.

Loosely inspired by E.M. Forster’s 1910 novel “Howard’s End,” Lopez conceived “The Inheritance” as a multigenerational drama about self-discovery, trauma, healing, memory and legacy in New York’s gay community.

“This is a very important play about what it takes to survive, bridging the class and social divide between wealthy and poor, and finding a place to call home,” Artistic/Executive Director Mark Schwamberger said.

What makes the play daunting?

This is the first time that Evolution, co-founded and led by Schwamberger in 2011, has mounted a production of this scale and importance.

“It’s quite a coup for us. I’m very excited but also a little scared,” Schwamberger said. “Theater itself is a risk ... But doing a two-part play, when you ask the audience to come see it one week and then return another week to see how it ends, that’s a challenge.”

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For Dublin’s professional theater company, resident since 2021 at the Abbey, Lopez’s epic sparked second thoughts.Schwamberger and Abbey leader Joe Bishara initially discussed staging just Part 1 this season, saving Part 2 for 2024.

“But that’s too much of a delay, because the two parts follow closely. So even though this is the costliest project in Evolution’s history, we decided to take September and do both parts,” Schwamberger said.

How do the director and critics view the play?

Bishara directs both parts of the six-hour play, with each part just under three hours including one intermission.

“Lopez asks what can we do to make things better for the next generation. The theme is that we should all try to pay things forward,” Bishara said. “The play does a good job humanizing loss, but it’s also a comic drama with moments of levity.”

Following its Olivier-winning 2018 London premiere, “The Inheritance” transferred to Broadway, where it won four 2020 Tony awards including best play.

While some critics found the play overlong, most gave it raves. Entertainment Weekly’s Leah Greenblatt called it a “funny, tender marathon” and in the Evening Standard, British critic Fiona Mountford hailed it as “a work of rare grace, truth and beauty.”

Who are the central characters?

Set from 2015 to 2018 with 1980s flashbacks, the play revolves around young gay activist Eric Glass (Niko Carter) and his boyfriend, writer Toby Darling (Anthony Baldasare), who share a rent-controlled apartment.

“Eric is caring and warm, but definitely a people pleaser. Eric wants everyone to be happy even if he has to sacrifice to do so,” Carter said.

“Eric’s journey is figuring out who he is and what he wants ... He learns that life is a lot of two steps forward, three steps back,” he said.

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Carter immediately recognized the characters.

“As a gay man, I felt I knew these people and their struggles ... I can relate them to my life and people I’ve known,” he said.

When Eric meets Henry Wilcox, the older gay man becomes a major influence.

“Henry shows Eric that his life doesn’t have to revolve around another person or a specific identity, like being gay,” Carter said.

What does the older generation want?

Frank Barnhart plays Henry, a real estate developer.

“A wealthy New Yorker, Henry is used to getting what he wants. He likes being in control, but doesn’t have that control in his growing relationship with Eric, caretaker of Henry’s husband,” Barnhart said.

Barnhart, 62, appreciates Lopez’s focus on relationships among generations of gay men.

“What I love about this play relates to my age: ‘The Inheritance’ focuses on the older community, how they lived and loved in the 1980s, and what they’ve passed on,” he said.

Having lost friends then, Barnhart can’t forget the impact of AIDS.

“I know what it felt like to have people dying around you ... As human beings, we walk in the footsteps of those who came before us. Being aware of what they left behind, of what the younger generation has inherited ... and how we’ve progressed, becomes important.”

How does Schwamberger view his roles?

Like most actors in the 11-member cast, Schwamberger plays more than one role. He alternates as Forster, the omnipresent narrator, and Walter, Henry’s husband.

“Long dead before these young men get together, E.M. Forster returns as a mentor, teacher and philosopher, directing them in how they tell their stories,” Schwamberger said. “Asking what’s their main purpose in telling their story as they work on a play, Forster is understanding about what the artists are trying to create.”

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Walter, meanwhile, is “empathetic and caring,” despite his conflicted relationship with Henry, and develops a fatherly relationship with Eric, Schwamberger said.

Like Forster’s novel, adapted into an Oscar-winning 1992 movie, “The Inheritance” poignantly explores class differences and complications surrounding property left as an inheritance, while dramatizing the value of friends, family and home, he said.

How similar is the play to 'Angels in America'?

Many critics have compared “The Inheritance" to “Angels in America,” Tony Kushner’s two-part 1993 gay fantasia.

“Nothing like this has been staged since ‘Angels,” Schwamberger said.

“I really believe ‘The Inheritance’ is on the same scale ...  Both are multidimensional plays about relationships and difficult egos, running the gamut of tragedy and comedy and from reality to fantasy,” he said.

Barnhart, meanwhile, views “The Inheritance” as “picking up” where “Angels” left off.

“But ‘The Inheritance,’ clearly not just for gay men,” he said, “deals with love, death, history and regret, which affects all lives ...regardless of their sexuality.”

With the increasing release of two-part films (“Dune,” “Mission: Impossible”) building on the popularity of the Harry Potter and Marvel superhero series, Bishara considers multi-part films and plays “the new normal.”

“People aren’t afraid to invest their time,” he said, “if it’s something worthy.”

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At a glance

Evolution Theatre Company will present “The Inheritance” at 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays for Part 1 (Sept. 7-16), and Part 2 (Sept. 21-30) at Abbey Theater, 5600 Post Road, Dublin. Tickets cost $50 for both parts; or for each part, $33, $28 for senior citizens, $15 for students. (614-233-1124, evolutiontheatre.org)

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Evolution Theatre Company to perform two-part drama 'The Inheritance'