MATTHEW HAWKINS enjoys a father’s memoir of life with his autistic son, and the music they explore together
Latest editorial
Intriguing confrontation let down by script limitations
BEST EFFORT: Simon Bird as Freud and Séan Browne as Lewis
A corrupted chemist, a Hampstead homosexual and finely observed class-conflict at The Bohemia
JENNY FARRELL relishes a modern parable that challenges readers to confront the legacies of empire, and the possibilities of resistance
Re-releases from Sharks and Return To Forever, and a new release from Nikki O’Neill
WILL STONE applauds a fine production that endures because its ever-relevant portrait of persecution
‘Chance encounters are what keep us going,’ says novelist Haruki Murakami. In Amy, a chance encounter gives fresh perspective to memories of angst, hedonism and a charismatic teenage rebel.
Freud’s Last Session
King’s Head Theatre
CS LEWIS’S 1933 novel The Pilgrim’s Regress featured a character called Sigismund Enlightenment who is referred to as a “vain and ignorant old man.” It was a barely veiled swipe at the psychoanalyst Sigismund Freud whose almost total disregard for religion rubbed the recently converted author up the wrong way.
Perhaps fortunately the two never met, but their ideas have been brought together frequently, most notably in Armand Nicholi’s book A Question of God which provided the inspiration for Mark St Germain’s 2011 play.
It is September 1 1939 and Lewis (Sean Browne) has made the train journey from Oxford, against the traffic of those leaving London with war looming, to visit the ageing Freud (Simon Bird) in his Hampstead living room. The conversation quickly turns to God. Freud cannot fathom why someone as educated as Lewis “can abandon truth and embrace an insidious lie” in the form of Christianity.
Lewis, the self-proclaimed “most reluctant convert in all of England” is anything but. Obsessed with binary moral codes he has a deeply held belief that human conscience is created by God, which unsurprisingly sends the stubborn and impatient Freud into fits of frustration.
The animated discussion has the feel of a sparring match until it’s dramatically interrupted by an air raid siren, unearthing Lewis’s trauma from the trenches of WWI. Frozen and frightened his belief in God seemingly provides him with little comfort and Freud seizes on this fact once the alarm has passed. But soon Freud’s own pain takes hold of him and the two find some common ground on which to bond.
St Germain provides us with an intriguing snapshot but eventually the ongoing back-and-forths begin to feel a little staid and fail to truly get under the skin of the characters. Bird and Browne do all they can to bring truth to these historical figures but there’s not enough for director Peter Darney to draw out from an ultimately predictable script.
Runs until February 12. Box Office: kingsheadtheatre.com
Mayer Wakefield
More from this author
MAYER WAKEFIELD laments the lack of audience interaction and social diversity in a musical drama set on London’s Underground
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
MAYER WAKEFIELD wonders why this 1978 drama merits a revival despite demonstrating that the underlying theme of racism in the UK remains relevant
MAYER WAKEFIELD speaks to playwright Richard Bean about his new play Reykjavik that depicts the exploitation of the Hull-based “far-fleet” trawlermen
