Growing up in Panama City, Fla., playwright Matthew López first encountered the film adaptation of E.M. Forster’s 1910 novel “Howards End” while he was in high school when his mother took him to the movies. At 16, a Puerto Rican teenager in Florida’s Panhandle, López was captivated by the story of three families navigating class, social convention, and relationships in turn-of-the-century England.
After moving to New York, López picked up Forster’s novel in a bookstore and learned that the author was a gay man. That discovery, combined with his early fascination with the film, ultimately inspired “The Inheritance,” a sweeping epic that explores similar themes through the lives of gay men across generations.
Zoetic Stage is premiering “The Inheritance, Part 1” as part of the company’s Theater Up Close series at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, opening in previews Thursday, Jan. 8, then running from Friday, Jan. 9 through Sunday, Jan. 25.
Zoetic Stage Artistic Director Stuart Meltzer said he has wanted to produce and direct “The Inheritance” since first reading the script in 2020.wlrn arts & cu
Meltzer sees López’s play as taking on what Forster could not openly do in his own time. “It picks up the written word of gay men across decades,” he said, tracing a lineage from sexual liberation to the devastation of the AIDS crisis and its aftermath. “It’s about learning from the past in order to move forward.”
The play is meant to be presented in two parts, “The Inheritance, Part 1, and “The Inheritance, Part 2,” unfolding over two evenings or in a marathon same-day presentation and roughly running seven hours.
“Early on, we tried to figure out how to produce both parts,” Meltzer said, a format widely recommended so audiences could experience the full work, but “the costs were exorbitant. It’s such a large piece of theater; it was just too much.”
“Part 1” establishes the characters, their relationships, and their inheritance.
While Meltzer said he always understood the significance of the work, its impact deepened as he began working on Zoetic Stage’s production.
“I don’t think I fully realized and recognized the importance of the play until really working on it. Seeing it now, it serves as a lesson of generations of gay men coming together and telling their story to resist erasure and pass on the torch to the next generation. It is a piece of theatrical literature that transcends audiences.”
For actor and South Florida native Alex Weisman, who stars as Eric Glass, one of the central characters in “The Inheritance,” seeing the play in its opening night on Broadway and now performing the character himself has been profound.
“So, we’ve got Eric Glass, you know, this gay Jewish guy in New York, and there I am—a gay Jewish guy in New York. The thing that really was most impactful for me was the exploration of this lost generation. You know, you have all this culture, all this creation, all this art from gay men from around 1900 to 1980, and then it just stops,” said Weisman, who grew up in Davie, Fla., before heading to Chicago to study theater at Northwestern University.
“And then in the late ‘90s, we start to see it again. But you think about these 20 to 30 years of stories of history, of culture that were just lost to the AIDS epidemic and realizing my generation of gay men having to start from scratch in some ways — having to reach farther back to find a foothold in culture because of this.”
Weisman recalled that during his work on Zoetic Stage’s 2022 production of Michael McKeever’s “American Rhapsody,” Meltzer was curious if he was familiar with “The Inheritance.” “He asked me then, ‘Have you seen or read this play.’ And I said, ‘I’ve read, seen and love this play. It is one of the most important plays of my generation of theater makers. And Stuart sort of planted the seed years ago that we’re now getting to grow into this beautiful tree.’”
South Florida native Anthony Michael Martinez, who grew up in Plantation Acres, graduated from Fort Lauderdale’s St. Thomas Aquinas High School “many moons ago,” and Florida State University, plays Toby Darling, Glass’s partner.
“Toby is this charismatic, ambitious young man who’s achieved some success… and he wears his heart on his sleeve, and he represents an aspect of the play that is someone who is just . . . dying to break through and achieve gain and fortune and success.”
For Martinez, the heart of the play lies in connection, honesty, and the truth Lopez has imbued in the characters’ lives. “There’s this spirit of honesty, transparency and just unapologetic, raw truth telling and storytelling and community building.”
The Shakespearean-trained actor said that while the writing is contemporary, “it feels like Shakespeare . . . poetic. I call it magical realism, it feels like the language speeds through like a bullet and then it suspends and the rhythm of it all feels like one big heartbeat.” He believes audiences will “get a good laugh and a good cry” as well as a deeper appreciation for their own lives, families, communities, and the causes they care about. “This piece, in many ways, is not saying you have to believe in something particular, but it does invite us to believe in each other. And I think that message could hit really hard right now.”
Meltzer agreed that the writing of the play has a rhythm. “I connect to it. It’s a very sort of New York rhythm. The characters are an array of gay men and it is a fully gay cast – men from all different kind of backgrounds.” “The Inheritance, Part 1,” even on its own, runs three and a half hours with two intermissions and the ensemble includes a dozen actors.
The plan for the director is that “The Inheritance, Part 2” will be added to next season but Meltzer acknowledges that presenting works with LGBTQ+ themes is not without its challenges in Florida. “The Inheritance” can only be attended by those 18 years or older. [Zoetic’s site has this disclaimer: This show contains mature themes and content, including depictions of nudity and explicit material as part of the play’s storytelling.] In 2023, Florida’s legislature passed a law that prevents venues from allowing anyone under 18 to attend a show that depicts “nudity, sexual conduct, or specific sexual activities that are deemed offensive or without serious value for children.”
While the law does not specifically mention plays about LGBTQ+ life, it can restrict minors from attending works that may be deemed inappropriate. The law has sparked debate about censorship and LGBTQ+ expression.
“We didn’t get any money from the state specifically, but we have our relationship with the Adrienne Arsht Center, who does, so it’s important that we adhere to these stipulations,” said Meltzer, talking about funding and the state’s provisions.
“It is unfortunate that in the time that we live, it limits audiences and who can come into the theater, but that’s certainly not going to stop us from pursuing challenging and honest plays — what some people could see as dangerous literature for youth, but which I, with every cell of my body, disagree with. We’re going to continue creating and presenting art that challenges, that increases empathy, and that encourages understanding. That’s my hope. That’s what I’m doing this year. That’s what I’m doing next year. And as long as I have been producing theater that has been my goal.”
WHAT: Zoetic Stage’s “The Inheritance, Part 1”
WHERE: Carnival Studio Theater at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami
WHEN: Performances 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Through Sunday, Jan. 25.
COST: $72.54, $66.69 (includes fees).
INFORMATION: (305) 949-6722 or arshtcenter.org
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