The Inheritance = Gay Heaven & Hell

So I finished part 2 of this amazing play, two nights ago called ‘The inheritance’ written by Matthew Lopez, and never have I watched a show that made me feel all the feels! I dont want to give away too much, but pretty much the play is about a group telling/writing a story about the life of Eric Glass and his boyfriend, Toby Darling. Eric is this compassionate man that loves and cares so much for people in his life, Toby , is a young man that doesn’t give away a lot about his personal life, but is a writer and clearly damaged. Eric is his supporter and backbone! Then theres Adam, a future crush for Toby and the next broadway star! Eric eventually gets close to Walter while Toby is traveling. Walter, which is this older man that lives in the same building and has seen it all. He has a relationship with Henry, we learn that Walter and Henry have this house in upstate New York, where Walter would be a lighthouse for his friends that were dying from the AIDS epidemic. Walter helped his friends feel comfortable on their final days of living. (Thats it I am saying about Part 1 , BECAUSE EVERYONE NEEDS TO GO SEE IT ASAP!)

Part 2, shows a more in depth side of Toby and his self destruction qualities, this hit’s home and I will get more into that later. Eric is moving on with his life, (not naming what he does, BECAUSE YOU, THE READER NEED TO SEE IT ASAP). The ending of this play was a full circle moment with the house being a lighthouse of gay men from the epidemic era to current times ❤ . Matthew Lopez had us all feeling some type of way, making this story a gem!

Some things that hit me and realizations I had that I need to vent is; the character Toby , Toby is a charming, talented ,but also destructive man. There was a scene in part 2 when he is in Fire Island with Leo, Toby would get lost in his feelings with so many drugs! Ignoring true love and life right in front of him! This brought up a thought to me, in our community there is heavy drug usage! Now don’t get me wrong, not all gay men are abusing drugs or doing them to escape, some just wanna let loose! But there are a good amount of gay men that are damaged , whether its not having an accepting family when they came out, or self esteem issues, society pressures, hating their career etc , and I’ve seen some of them get lost in drugs due to these hidden emotions and it sometimes leads them to death. This epiphany that I had about how our community has been marginalized for so long, we carry the weight of homophobia for generation on our back subconsciously. We carry the ‘what if’ thought in our heads. What if this guy doesn’t like me? What if I don’t have abs? What if , Im introverted? What if, they dont understand that I’m Gay? Maybe taking away the pressure of being too sexy or gay enough will help loosen some tension of hidden emotions. I personally want to be so in love with life etc, that I am not tripped up about a drug loved induced world. I want pure emotions of my heart to pour through me and let it light the euphoria of my gay world ❤.

Toby also has a moment where he realizes he doesn’t like to be needed, and this hit’s home to me . I have these moments when dating, when a guy likes me more than I like them, I tend to run. Why is that? Could it be my independent energy that leads me to not wanting to be needed and having the responsibility or is it because I may be damaged from childhood where I always needed my mom, and once I grew my own wings I have despised the fact of the action of needing someone or being needed.With toby, he needed his parents and they both died and weren’t there for him. He was use to the fact of needing someone to help support him, then when the tables flipped he didn’t know how to react. This brings up a good point in gay culture, are we scared of being vulnerable due to our past or are we scared of being vulnerable for the future that will make us regret our past. Or is it the fear of being too vulnerable from the acceptance of society?

Eric Glass is a beautiful character, he cares so much for people especially for Toby, Leo, Walter and Henry! But was he always settling? He always lets some of these men walk over him without standing up for himself. Even rushing into a marriage! This character shows another side of our community, where some of us want love so bad or the idea of love that sometimes we sacrifice our standards in order to get the goal/dream of love that we want! I have this problem at times too! Am I settling when I meet someone because of my hopeless romantic side? It’s such a mind fuck to be honest! Are we not open with ourselves enough to know or is society and our community forcing us to choose between to being a thot in the gay community or being married with kids?. Why does there have to be two options? Why cant there be five? I believe we have more choices and should explore what really makes us happy instead of always settling or being used!

Matthew Lopez conveyed such a powerful story that opened up these others questions and what ifs. I cant believe from watching this play it brought up so many other questions about myself and how I love and see myself etc. Where do I draw the line in giving myself away too much or becoming too jaded that when someone reciprocates emotion to me I get scared and hide? Is this a society constructional belief or is it our community carrying emotional baggage from repression over the generations? Is it mental health that till today , some of us are scared to even talk about?

Besides all the questions that came up to me as I was re-discovering myself through this play, I want to also say , how much joy and hope it gave me! Cherish the people in your life! Be supportive of your friends, they are your chosen family! I love my friends especially my gay friends, they are my brothers for life ❤ . This play demonstrated the importance of having support especially in the gay community! This play also showed me how much self love is important, sometimes the person your’e meant to be with is also right in front of you :). Never give up on what it means to you on being a gay American in this society, never let anyone walk over you! Support each other and know that you wont always agree on something, but fighting this battle together is better than fighting it alone!

Best,

Antonio Liranzo