Mark St Germain’s play Freud’s Final Session on the King’s Head Theatre in Islington is a compact but highly effective play which imagines a conflict of mind and reasoning between two well-known minds.
Consulting sofa on the set of Freud’s Final Session, King’s Head Theatre July 2022. Designer: Brad Caleb Lee
It is England on the day that World Struggle II might be declared, and Freud (Julian Chicken) has invited Oxford Professor CS Lewis (Séan Browne) to see him at his London residence. The founding father of psychoanalysis is within the later levels of painful mouth most cancers, whereas Lewis is but to turn into a well-known author.
Freud, an atheist, is fascinated with Lewis’s sudden re-adoption of Christianity, having misplaced his religion as an adolescent. With the specter of conflict looming, the 2 debate the existence of God, faith, intercourse and relationships.
St Germain’s tight script permits the interrogation of each males’s arguments, but the conversations’ seriousness additionally has flashes of wit and humour. It isn’t a lot a case of 1 successful over the opposite however what they uncover about themselves through the dialog.
Browne’s Lewis is assured, respectful and , but there may be additionally a playfulness to him that brings mild to the character. It contrasts with the weightier Freud, performed beautifully by Chicken. His Freud is a pointy thoughts encased in a painfully crumbling physique. He brings a grumpy impatience that’s comprehensible in previous age.
Carried out on the small King’s Head stage, full with the well-known consulting sofa, Freud’s Final Session is a compelling watch, and I am giving it: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Freud’s Final Session, King’s Head Theatre
Written by Mark St Germain.
Directed by Peter Darney
Operating time: 80 minutes with out an interval.
Reserving till 13 August; for extra particulars and to e-book, head to the King’s Head Theatre web site.
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