Matthew Lopez's THE INHERITANCE - Part I

"The Inheritance" by playwright/screenwriter Mark Lopez is at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in a marathon performance in 2 parts.  Lopez best known for his play "The Whipping Man" which earned an Obie.  "The Inheritance" opened in London and received the Olivier and London Critics Award.  The play is cleverly structured around a group of young men who are budding writers. The play is set in NYC in the near present and tips its poetic license in homage to E M Forster who appears as their friendly professor willing to work with a student claiming writers block or as Forster says "a writer's tool - procrastination."  The young man bemoans narrative today can't compare to that of the epoch in the early 20th C England.  Forster steps in and tells him themes of love and requited love are timeless and persists in prodding his protege into setting up characters and plots.  Toby Darling is selected as the main character and his lover is Eric Glass.  Toby is at a party in the Hamptons surrounded by famous celebrities and calls Eric cajoling him to join him as he continues to consume martinis.  The facade of structuring a story melds into the play unfolding.  Toby is the budding writer and Eric his partner/fiancee.  The live in a spacious rent controlled UWS apartment, for now.  Eric is the unassuming character whose heroic triumphs have yet to be revealed.  Happenstance brings Eric together with the older, Henry Wilcox while both their partners are out of town.  Over dinner & wine, Henry is coaxed into sharing how he and his partner have remained together for nearly 4 decades.  Henry's love story is shrouded during the AIDs epidemic, its horrors and fears.  It seems that fear that was a major factor in sustaining their relationship.  Eric and Toby inhabit an era liberated from AID's fatalities and gay persecution and face seemingly more banal issues that plague all relationships.  Lopez's clever play is staged on a minimal set with engaging actors.  But, the dramatic impacts falters in comparison to "Angels in America" and "The Normal Heart."  The comparisons with these masterful plays and E M Forsters' brilliant writings may be unfair but this is the inheritance "The Inheritance" is built upon.