When the first part of Matthew López’s 2018 epic The Inheritance ended, I took a tram down to join my partner and thousands of dancing, flirting and drunk queer people at Midsumma Carnival.

Imagine the gayest Mariah Carey mix you’ve ever heard blasting from a main stage filled with local drag queens and framed by tens of stalls – some selling Pride merch, others offering free rapid HIV testing and condoms; the Victoria Police and the Liberal Party rubbing shoulders with the Greens.

It’s a scene that would be at home in López’s award-winning play, which explores the lives of eight gay men, each defined by various warring dichotomies: past and future; rich and poor; pain vs joy, Republican vs Democrat; Mariah Carey or Liza Minnelli.

A loose adaptation of E.M. Forster’s Howard’s End, the play tries to contend with the speed of recent progress for gay men in particular, encountering the history that has made this progress possible, and asking what understanding both means for our shared future.

It’s also a mammoth task to stage, lasting over seven hours and featuring a cast of 13.

Presented as part of Midsumma Festival at fortyfivedownstairs, and directed by Kitan Petkovski, this Australian-premier production is an...