About the Play:

The Voysey Inheritance was one of Royal National Theatre of Britain's top 100 plays of the 20th century.

The Voysey Inheritance is a full length drama by Harley Granville Barker, adapted by David Mamet. One hundred years after the first publication of The Voysey Inheritance Mamet resurrected this classic investigation into the capitalist soul in this brilliant adaptation.

Crime doesn't pay — or does it? When a con makes you rich, life gets a lot more complicated. For generations, the Voysey family business has been secretly cheating its clients. Edward, a junior partner who plans to take over the company from his ageing father, is horrified when he discovers the embezzlement that has been keeping his relatives in the lap of luxury. But nobody wants Edward to dismantle the firm's criminal legacy — not his associates, not the woman he loves, and certainly not his large, pampered family. As the risk of exposure looms larger, and his sense of right and wrong becomes increasingly distorted, Edward comes to fully understand the consequences of his "inheritance." The Voysey Inheritance is a witty, impeccably crafted portrait of a family in the midst of a surprisingly modern moral dilemma.

Cast: 4 women, 8 men.

What people say:

"Scintillating … The script resonates with [Granville Barker's] literate wit and Mamet's sharp, spare dynamism." — San Francisco Chronicle

"As powerful an exploration of commercial misconduct as Mamet's own hardheaded business-themed dramas Glengarry Glen Ross and American Buffalo … It's difficult to imagine a work more presciently engaged with the ethics of transgression and repayment." — San Francisco Weekly

"A wonderful ride ... Bristles with relevance to contemporary business ethics and morality." — Contra Costa Times

About the Playwright:

Harley Granville Barker (1877-1946) was a renowned playwright, director and actor, most famously known for being one of the most influential actors and directors of Shakespeare of all time. Passionate about the value of theatre and committed to exploring ways of revitalizing how plays are staged, when Barker retired from the theatre, he wrote The Prefaces to Shakespeare.

David Mamet is an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright as well as a director, novelist, poet, and essayist. He has written the screenplays for more than twenty films, including the Oscar-nominated The Verdict. His more than twenty plays include the Pulitzer Prizewinning Glengarry Glen Ross. Born in Chicago in 1947, Mamet has taught at the Yale School of Drama, New York University, and Goddard College, and he lectures at the Atlantic Theater Company, of which he is a founding member. He lives in Santa Monica, California.