Matthew Lopez

You don't have to tell me everything at once. Just tell me a little bit. And then a little bit more. And you could just keep telling me until eventually I'd know you. After a tragedy, Jonathan has withdrawn from the world, curtailing his social life to brief encounters with men he meets online. When free spirit Claire moves into the flat upstairs, she tries to coax him out of his shell. Drawn together by their desire for emotional attachment, they form a connection, but the happiness they find is threatened as the past reverberates. Matthew López's funny, sexy play about loneliness and longing was first performed at Hartford Stage, Connecticut, in 2015. It received its European premiere, in this reshaped version, at the Bristol Old Vic in October 2024.

"The most important American play of the century." Daily TelegraphInspired by E. M. Forster's novel Howards End, and set in New York three decades after the height of the AIDS epidemic, The Inheritance wrestles with what it means to be a gay man today, exploring relationships and connections across age and social class and asking what one generation's responsibilities may be to the next. Matthew López's The Inheritance premiered at the Young Vic Theatre, London, in 2018, before transferring to the West End's Noel Coward Theatre. It premiered on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 2019. This edition includes revisions made for the Broadway production.

Drama / Characters: 3 male It is April, 1865. The Civil War is over and throughout the south, slaves are being freed, soldiers are returning home and in Jewish homes, the annual celebration of Passover is being celebrated. Into the chaos of war-torn Richmond comes Caleb DeLeon, a young Confederate officer who has been severely wounded. He finds his family's home in ruins and abandoned, save for two former slaves, Simon and John, who wait in the empty house for the family's return. As the three men wait for signs of life to return to the city, they wrestle with their shared past, the bitter irony of Jewish slave-owning and the reality of the new world in which they find themselves. The sun sets on the last night of Passover and Simon - having adopted the religion of his masters - prepares a humble Seder to observe the ancient celebration of the freeing of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt, noting with particular satisfaction the parallels to their current situation. But the pain of their enslavement will not be soothed by this tradition, and deep-buried secrets from the past refuse to be hidden forever as the play comes to its shocking climax. The Whipping Man is a play about redemption and forgiveness, about the lasting scars of slavery, and the responsibility that comes with freedom. "A mesmerizing drama." - Peter Filichia, Newark Star-Ledger "A cause for celebration. Mathew Lopez has come as close as any author could to producing a microcosm of the genesis of a wide range of today's Black American males." - Bob Rendell, Talkin' Broadway "I can see why director Lou Bellamy chose this play for Penumbra, whose most famous alumnus is playwright August Wilson. In its complex welter of issues, in its interior explorations... The Whipping Man is Wilsonian." - Rohan Preston, Minneapolis Star-Ledger "Succeeds with an uncanny maturity in using sharply drawn characters and rich metaphor to wrestle Wilson-like with epic American issues of race, religion, and responsibility. Someone must succeed Wilson; it might as well be Lopez" - Tim Gihring, Minnesota Monthly