ARTIST
INTERVIEW
PHOTO BY JUSTIN BETTMAN
THE WITNESS GENERATION
Playwright Matthew López
EXCERPT FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH PLAYWRIGHT MATTHEW LÓPEZ ON “THE FABULOUS INVALID” PODCAST Rob Russo and Jamie DuMont, hosts of The Fabulous
my life. I was in Central Park one afternoon in 2008,
Invalid Podcast, sat down with playwright Matthew
rereading it for the hundredth time. And it was just
López in March of 2020, shortly before the COVID-19
this bolt of inspiration. I knew in that instant that I
pandemic forced the Broadway production of The
could take these families from the novel from three
Inheritance to close. The episode was released on
social classes and retell it using gay men from three different generations.
May 6, 2020.
As a gay man who was born in 1977—alive during
This transcript has been condensed and edited for clarity.
the epidemic, but not old enough to be directly imperiled by it—I’ve always thought of my generation as a witness generation. We witnessed the events in
R O B R U SS O : We were both struck by the way that
the ‘80s and the early ‘90s, but we were not directly
the play dramatizes intergenerational relationships
impacted by them. And then we became adults, and
among gay men, which is something that we don’t
our lives became settled as adults. And now there’s
really see a lot in media. What inspired you to craft a
a new world that I’m watching this next generation
story that touches on this dynamic of gay men from
of the queer community run with: this explosion of
different generations?
openness, of redefining who we are and who we are
M AT T H E W LÓ P E Z : It started with the novel,
in the world.
Howards End. I was so in love with that book and
R O B R U SS O: I have to imagine that someone
the film as a teenager, and it has stayed with me all
who’s just now turning 18 or 20 would see this play
6