DAS VERMÄCHTNIS (THE INHERITANCE) TEIL 1 UND 2

THE INHERITANCE - PART 1
by Matthew Lopez

from the American by Hannes Becker I freely adapted from the novel "Howards End" by E.M. Forster

Invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen 2023 as one of the ten most remarkable productions in the German-speaking theater scene.

The production "Das Vermächtnis (The Inheritance)" was nominated for the NESTROY Prize 2022 as BEST PERFORMANCE IN GERMAN LANGUAGE.

Part 1: approx. 3 hours, 10 min. (incl. 1 intermission)

Long intermission: approx. 50 minutes

Part 2: approx. 3 hours, 15 min. (incl. 1 intermission)

Part 1 and Part 2 will be shown both as a double bill and individually on consecutive days.

Tickets for both performances can be purchased individually or as a package.

New York City in the final months of Barack Obama's presidency. While author Toby Darling awaits the premiere of his play, his partner Eric Glass spends time with his acquaintance Walter. His conversations with the 55-year-old lead Eric into a past that, as a gay man in his early thirties, he knows only by hearsay: the devastating AIDS epidemic that shook the LGBTQ community from the early 1980s onward. Yet Walter's stories repeatedly mention a picturesque old country house. What role this place played for Walter and his partner Henry Wilcox, Eric can not guess. In the fall of 2016, Eric's circle of friends is stunned by Hillary Clinton's election defeat at the hands of Republican Donald Trump. America is changing. Suddenly, freedoms that the previous generation of activists fought for no longer seem a given. Eric must ask himself who he is and wants to be.

With his award-winning play "The Legacy," internationally acclaimed American playwright Matthew Lopez has created a masterpiece of storytelling: a stage epic in two parts, a relationship and social drama, rich in characters, a portrait of mores as comic as it is tragic. In it, he takes motifs from E. M. Forster's 1910 novel "Howards End," transfers them to 2010s New York, and swiftly tells the touching story of an elective family and gay community facing the question of whether it is ready to embrace the legacy of recent history. Lopez's play bows to the fates of the past and creates a utopian image of shared responsibility and mutual respect. In doing so, it follows in the tradition of Tony Kushner's "Angels in America," which will also be shown at the Residenztheater this season.

For part 2 of "Das Vermächtnis (The Inheritance)" Nicole Heesters returns to the Residenztheater after a long absence.

Artistic direction

Production and stage Philipp Stölzl
Costumes Kathi Maurer
Composition Ingo Ludwig Frenzel
Lighting Gerrit Jurda
Collaboration stage Franziska Harm
Dramaturgy Ewald Palmetshofer