he Inheritance playwright Matthew Lopez said that he wrote the epic two-parter about gay life in New York "in order to heal".
He picked up the Best Play in association with Chanel at tonight’s 64th Evening Standard Theatre Awards.
The seven hour drama retells EM Forster’s Howards End in modern day New York among a group of young gay men.
Accepting the award, Lopez joked: “No one goes into a career as a playwright because they are well adjusted,” continuing that “being gay was the most joyful and the most traumatic truth of my life for so much of my life. I needed to look at the trauma and heal from it and live my life in joy and that’s why I wrote this play.”
He was presented the award by Vanessa Redgrave, star of the original cast of The Inheritance at the Young Vic and its transfer, which is currently running at the Noel Coward Theatre. The Standard’s review called it “the play of this year and last year and quite possibly next year as well”. Read the full review here.
The Inheritance was up for two other awards at tonight’s ceremony: the Milton Shulman Award for Best Director, for Stephen Daldry, and Best Actor in partnership with Ambassador Theatre Group for Kyle Soller. When asked if the play should transfer to Broadway, Soller told the Standard: "hell yeah".
