‘The Inheritance’ draws you in, both in heart and mind | Review
“The Inheritance,” the Tony award-winning best play of 2020, makes its Central Florida debut with a beautifully intimate production that engrosses from the opening scene to its closing cliffhanger. It’s a cliffhanger because there’s more to come: “The Inheritance” is presented in two parts, and the Ensemble Company in Oviedo opened the first half on Friday night (the second half opens Sept. 15).
Matthew López’s high-concept play feels like an epic — and it is — but the Ensemble Company’s production, directed with appealingly straightforward simplicity by Matthew MacDermid makes it refreshingly human. With a magic only found in the best theater, you have both a glorious meditation on what we owe to past generations and why — or whether — a culture should be maintained, as well as a heartfelt story of finding love, losing love and finding it again.
Both aspects of “The Inheritance” succeed here, with poignant and memorable performances alongside the power of López’s words.
The play, which is loosely inspired by E.M. Forster’s “Howard’s End,” opens with a young gay man wanting to write a book about his friends and lovers. That leads to an actual appearance by Forster, portrayed by Thomas Muniz with a winning no-nonsense sympathy, as writing coach. As the book unfolds, the men positioned alongside the square-platform stage tell the tale through dialogue, narration and literary device.
In simplistic terms, it’s the story of self-doubting and openhearted Eric Glass, living in the rent-controlled apartment that belonged to his grandmother, a Jewish immigrant who escaped the Holocaust. His boyfriend, Toby Darling, is a restless and ambitious writer with a bent toward self-destruction.
As Toby works on writing a play alongside Adam, the men’s aspiring-actor friend, Eric becomes close to Walter, a soft-spoken older man who remembers the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s only too well.
The deeper themes of preserving a culture, why community matters and what happens if a generation disappears before passing on its wisdom is mixed throughout.
Each of the primary characters is caught up with the past: Toby’s secretive about his childhood, Eric fears leaving his family home. But has the past taught them anything, left them any wisdom for building a future?
“Who are we, and who will we become?” Eric asks.
MacDermid effectively uses simple staging in terms of lights, costumes and props to keep the focus on López’s prose — sometimes wandering, occasionally messy, with periodic detours into debate, but always delivered with the joy, heart and truth of life. And the director smartly ups the intimacy by presenting the play in the round, although that can obscure some of the chorus dialogue. (Enunciate, boys!)
Trevor Spence blazes across the stage as Toby — unsettled, combative, passionate and his own worst enemy. Yet Spence shows us the vulnerability that somehow keeps the audience on Toby’s side. Ben Gaetanos is equally dynamic as Eric — sunny, romantic, heart on his sleeve. His fears become our fears; his happiness, ours.
Hunter Rogers keeps Adam enigmatic but delivers in a charged monologue about a shocking sexual encounter; he also doubles roles, and as sex worker Leo shows a vulnerability that will be more important in the play’s second half.
Muniz also plays Walter and imbues him with a lovely gentle spirit. Roy Hamlin, as Walter’s longtime partner, comes across a bit stiff at first but as his character softens, Hamlin’s acting relaxes — again, something that will be important in Part 2.
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A scene set on election night 2016 provides a chilling moment of reckoning for these young gay men who have come of age during President Obama’s LGBTQ-friendly policies and underscores their own precarious grasp on their lives.
And in one memorable exchange, a pair of characters looks at the play’s two levels: “The world has changed so much,” one says, while another points out the most elemental aspects of being human remain constant: “Hearts still love … and break.”
Typically, a critic would review both parts of “The Inheritance” together, but I chose to write solely about part 1 now so you have time to see it this week, should you choose. I hope you do.
‘The Inheritance’
Part 1: Runs 2:50, with two intermissions. Performances are Sept. 9, 10, 11, 21, 23 and 24.
Part 2: Will open Sept. 15 with subsequent performances on Sept. 16, 17, 18, 22, 23 and 24.
Where: Imagine Performing Arts Center at Oviedo Mall, 1700 Oviedo Mall Blvd. in Oviedo
Cost: $22 (student and senior discounts)
Info: theensemblecompany.com
Follow me at facebook.com/matthew.j.palm or email me at mpalm@orlandosentinel.com. Find more arts news and reviews at orlandosentinel.com/arts, and go to orlandosentinel.com/theater for theater news and reviews.
