How does one go about memorizing 400 pages of dialogue? Even after a year and a half, Kyle Soller still doesn’t know
The 36-year-old debuted the role of Eric Glass in The Inheritance on the West End last year, and now is playing him on Broadway
We spoke recently after another long weekend of performances: “I don’t really remember yesterday at all,” he said
“I feel like I’m in an aftershock.” The Inheritance, written by Matthew Lopez (The Whipping Man) and directed by Stephen Daldry (The Crown) has been lauded as the best play of the year—and perhaps even the century
The play, which is performed in two parts and comes to a running time at nearly seven hours total (don’t worry—mixed nuts and chocolate bars are sold at the concession), is a beautiful, gripping, and complex feat, in which the lives of present-day New York City–based gay men are layered with those who lived and lost during the AIDS crisis
The play is based on E.M. Forster’s Howards End, and touches upon the idea of inheritance—both material and spiritual
The impact is devastating; in his New York Times review Ben Brantley wrote of the end of part one, “I challenge any theatergoer with a heart not to cry
” Soller has lived in London since graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in 2008
Two years ago he got a call to audition for The Inheritance, but there was a problem: The script was 400 pages, and the audition was the very next day
“I was like, Do they do midnight auditions?” he says. “I started reading the script and didn’t finish it until I was on the tube going to the theater…
Once I started reading, it was so compulsive and I knew I’d never read anything like it before
There was something instantly so unique, profound, hilarious, and moving…. I got four hours of sleep that night
” He was the first person cast in The Inheritance, and stayed with the play when it moved from the Young Vic to the West End in 2018
The Inheritance was a hit at the Olivier Awards, winning best new play, director, lighting design, and Soller winning best actor, as well as the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards, nabbing best new play, director, and another win for Soller
The actor, who was one of two original actors who moved from London to the Broadway opening this month, recognizes the weighty message at the heart of the play, and how much it has meant to audiences
“Matthew’s play really asks, What is the inherited responsibility that we owe toward the younger generation coming up, and how can we bring these two generations together to forge a better future?” Eric Glass is the central figure of The Inheritance, the idealist who surrounds himself with friends who are vibrant and interesting because he doesn’t see himself in that same way
“I really admire Eric. He has a level of altruism that I think is very enviable and I don’t know if it’s entirely possible in the modern world that we live in,” Soller said
“He receives a lot of pain and grief, but has an incredibly positive outlook on life
You don’t find many central characters who are really trying to be good.” To put it bluntly, playing Eric Glass for a year and a half—and that’s even before the Broadway premiere—has taken over Soller’s life
He even dreams as Eric Glass. “It’s all-consuming, and it kind of has to be—it’s so fast and so huge,” he says of the material, which Lopez and Daldry have been known to work and rework even up until opening night
Soller is still learning how to shake off the heaviness at the end of a performance
“I have to take a shower after the shows, just to kind of wash it away…but I haven’t found a fixed thing that really works
The undertaking of this is a physical and emotional journey that I’ve never experienced before
Coupled with that are the people who we meet after the show at the stage door who tell us about their own journeys of survival
That kind of emotional heaviness is something I’m still trying to find a way to let go of
” But Soller isn’t too concerned about that. “We’re learning more horrible truths every day from our newsfeeds, but a play about love, acceptance, trust, being honest, and looking to your fellow humans to create a better future for each other and honoring your past and learning from your mistakes to create a better world for each other is the kind of fucking play we need right now
”More Great Stories From Vanity Fair — Catching up with David Letterman, 10 years after this writer who worked on his show criticized him in an op-ed— Here’s why Chance the Rapper is the best SNL host we’ve seen so far— Here’s what we know about Harry and Meghan’s war on the tabloids— Lori Loughlin and her family are in constant chaos— Selena Gomez shares why she finally let go of Justin Bieber drama— From the archive: Meet the dynamite socialite princess of Bavaria Looking for more? Sign up for our daily newsletter and never miss a story