Henri Szeps as Freud in Off-Broadway Award Winner

What happened when C.S. Lewis met Sigmund Freud? Australian audiences will find out when Freud’s Last Session opens at Sydney’s Theatre Royal on August 15, 2013. Winner of the 2011 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Play, Freud’s Last Session tells of an exquisite intellectual duel between two great minds of last century.

Inspired by Dr Armand S. Nicholi Jr's 2003 book The Question of God, playwright Mark St. Germain’s thought provoking play ran Off-Broadway for two years.

Freud’s Last Sessioncentres on legendary psychoanalyst Dr Sigmund Freud, who invites a young, little-known professor, C.S. Lewis, to his home in London. Lewis, expecting to be hauled over the carpet for satirizing Freud in a recent book, soon realizes Freud has a much more significant agenda. On the day England enters World War II (3 September 1939), Freud and Lewis clash on the existence of God, love, sex and the meaning of life – only a few weeks before Freud chooses to take his own.

Two extraordinary actors will bring these lively and remarkable characters to the fore. Henri Szeps (Mother and Son) plays Sigmund Freud, an 83 year-old atheist of Jewish descent and father of psychoanalysis who is tortured by his slow journey to death from an inoperable cancer and exile. Up-and-coming talent Douglas Hansell (Underbelly: Badness) plays C.S. Lewis, a 40 year-old Oxford Professor who converted late to Christianity and later wrote The Chronicles of Narnia. The two engage in a tightly wound confrontation addressing the key questions of humanity on this auspicious day.

Produced by Adam Liberman, Freud’s Last Session will be directed by Adam Cook, set and costumes designed by Mark Thompson and lighting design by Gavan Swift.

FREUD’S LAST SESSION

by Mark St Germain

Starring Henri Szeps and Douglas Hansell

Produced by Adam Liberman

Directed by Adam Cook

Set and Costumes Designed by Mark Thompson

Lighting Design by Gavan Swift

Venue: Theatre Royal, King Street, Sydney

Previews: August 14 at 1pm and 8pm

Season: August 15 – September 8

Performance times: Tues 7.30pm, Wed – Sat evening 8pm, matinees Wed 1pm, Sat 2pm, Sun 3pm

Price: From $59.90 (transaction fees apply)

Bookings:  ticketmaster.com.au or 1300 723 038

TICKETS ON SALE        Monday March 18

Photographer: Brian Geach