At 7 hours long, ‘The Inheritance’ still doesn’t tell the full story of HIV/AIDS
A shirtless man stands on stage, streaking fake blood across his corrugated abdomen and retelling a euphoric bathhouse orgy that turned into an HIV scare.
A quick flight to the nearest city with post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) meant that this sexual encounter would remain just a scare.
Little is said about the reality that not everyone can go to those lengths for lifesaving medication. That is the great tension in Mathew Lopez’s play, “The Inheritance,” which tries to speak on the progress in ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic without acknowledging that it still remains a plague for some communities.
The two-part, seven-hour play performed over two nights (or one very long day) is a reimagining of E.M. Forster’s “Howard’s End” that originally premiered at London’s Old Vic in 2018.
