REVIEW: FREUD’S LAST SESSION by Mark St Germain at King’s Head Theatre until 12 February 2022

‘Mark St Germain has made this conversation burst forth and come alive’ ★★★★.5

Freud’s Last Session is a meeting of minds. And what minds! The legendary psychotherapist convenes with the famed convert-to-Christianity and fantasy writer, C.S. Lewis (SEAN BROWNE) at Freud’s (DR. JULIAN BIRD) home in London on the day World War II is declared.

Besides the onset of war, there are many poignant moments in their rendezvous. The conversation veers from the impending war to fear of death and the morality of suicide to the men’s relationships with their fathers to sexual pleasure (this is Freud, after all). Ultimately, it comes to the question of the existence of God and whether God is good, in light of life’s atrocities. Fluidly, we find out more about the histories of these famous figures while engaging in a conversation that in no way feels didactic. Rather, the audience gains an unusual opportunity to be a fly on the wall in Freud’s office, decorated in Viennese style, listening to one of the most erudite of conversations. Despite its deep topics, the conversation lacks no emotive quality. Freud himself is in his last days of life, and this is more than a thought exercise. He is suffering from cancer.

The performance of Bird, himself once a psychiatrist, is bewitching. There isn’t a moment when you wouldn’t believe he is Freud incarnate. And speaking of incarnation, Séan Browne plays a young Lewis as quite the articulate zealot for Christianity to Freud’s atheistic views. The two come together to create a space to air the antithetical views with intelligence and well-timed humour. At one point, Freud asks Lewis whether his genre of writing is Fantasy and finds commonality in the fact that “[he} spent much of [his] time analysing fantasies”.

Freud’s desk, even, is key to the conversation, with his collection of Greek, Roman and Egyptian antiquities. The simple set is used to its utmost: a radio playing the latest news, open bulb lights dimming and gas masks at the ready, give a present reminder of the outside world’s suffering in the midst of the calm of the psychoanalyst’s office. Together, in the grips of mortal fear, Freud and Lewis try to understand each other.

What if more of us could understand the worldview we do not embrace?

For decades, a Harvard University course has been running about just such an imaginary conversation between these two celebrated thinkers. And then the professor penned it into a book. Then came the 4-hour documentary.

Playwright Mark St Germain shaped this into more than a lesson: fantasy as it may be, he has made this conversation burst forth and come alive.

FREUD’S LAST SESSION by Mark St Germain at King’s Head Theatre / 18 January - 12 February 2022

Box Office https://kingsheadtheatre.com/whats-on/freuds-last-session

Written by Mark St Germain

Performed by Julian Bird and Séan Browne

Directed by Peter Darney

Set and Costume Design by Brad Caleb-Lee

Lighting Design by Clare O’Donoghue

Composer and Sound Designer: Sam Glossup

Stage Manager: Paris Wu

Assistant Producer: Bethany Birss

Reviewer: Mariam Mathew is an alumnus of Guardian critic Mark Fisher’s theatre criticism course and an aspiring playwright.