<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><b><span style="font-size:22.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:maroon">‘Freud’s
Last Session’ proves theatrical gem</span></b><span style="font-size:22.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:maroon"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#666666"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#666666">Posted: Thursday,
March 7, 2013 12:00 pm</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#666666"> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#666666">Reviewed by FRAN
HELLER </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#666666"><br></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">A drama centering on a
debate about the existence of God seems an unlikely subject for entertainment.
Mark St. Germain’s entertaining “Freud’s Last Session” proves otherwise.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">Inspired by Armand
Nicholi Jr.’s “The Question of God,” with Neil Thackaberry’s bracing direction
and crackling performances by Brian Zoldessy as Freud and Keith Stevens as C.S.
Lewis, “Freud’s Last Session” is 80 straight minutes of intelligent and
irresistible theater.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">The play centers on a
fictitious meeting between Freud, the atheist father of psychoanalysis, and
Lewis as an Oxford
don and recent convert to Christianity. While it revolves around their
antithetical belief systems, the war of wits between these two towering
intellects includes an engrossing discussion about sex, death, war, Hitler and
the role of humor.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">It’s Sept. 3, 1939, the
eve of World War II. Freud, 83, is terminally ill with oral cancer; Lewis, 40,
has yet to write his famous “The Chronicles of Narnia.” Freud has invited Lewis
to London to
debate religion; the man of science and reason cannot understand why this
rising literary star could embrace theism. The play takes on the aura of
dialectic, a Talmudic dispute about the existence of God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">Rory Wohl’s handsome
setting of Freud’s book-lined study, complete with artifacts from antiquity,
draws the audience into the debate.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">Zoldessy turns every
role into theatrical gold. The veteran Jewish actor makes Freud’s prickly,
cynical nature and the pain from his illness come alive. With faltering gait,
imperious mien and impeccable Viennese accent, he creates an indelible portrait
of Freud.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">Despite a wobbly English
dialect, Stevens holds his own as a brilliant academic as impassioned in his
beliefs as Freud is about his non-belief. Religion makes room for science; why
can’t science make room for religion? asks a forceful Lewis.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">Both despised their
fathers as men of faith who drove their sons away from religion. Freud bitterly
relates an anecdote about his father, an Orthodox Jew. When Freud was a child,
he saw a man knock his father’s hat off and shout, “Get off the sidewalk, Jew.”
Freud’s father did, saying nothing, doing nothing. His father’s greatest
influence, says Freud, was making him realize who not to be.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">Freud grows agitated
when the discussion turns to war, Hitler and persecution of the Jews. When
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declares war against Germany, he
reacts. “There will always be monsters like Hitler,” Freud says. “We </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">cannot survive without
enemies; they are as necessary as air.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">Freud is also critical
of Jesus’ teachings. Should Poland
turn the other cheek and love its neighbor when German tanks are destroying its
homes? he asks rhetorically.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">Humor provides relief
from the heavy subject matter. When Lewis apologizes for being late, Freud
answers, “If I wasn’t 83, it wouldn’t matter.” When an air raid siren proves a
false alarm, the avowed atheist mutters, “Thank God,” then corrects himself,
saying, “It’s a bad habit.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">Plays of ideas are rare
today. That’s good reason to see “Freud’s Last Session.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">WHAT: ‘Freud’s Last
Session’</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">WHERE: Greystone Hall, 103 S. High St., Akron</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">WHEN: Through Sunday,
March 17</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-repeat:initial initial"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial">TICKETS & INFO:
330-374-7568 or <a href="http://www.actorssummit.org/"><span style="color:#457d9d">www.actorssummit.org</span></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b><span style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:maroon"><br></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white">
<b><span style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:maroon">Actors’
Summit
challenges audience with </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b><span style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:maroon">‘Freud’s
Last Session’</span></b><b><span style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS""></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b><span style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS'">3/7/2013 - <i>West
Side</i><i> Leader</i></span></b><span style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS'"> <i>By David
Ritchey</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS'"><i><br></i></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:22.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:red">Production features ‘excellent’ directing, acting</span></i></b><span style="font-size:22.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";color:red"></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'">DOWNTOWN AKRON — If lightning had
struck Actors’ Summit in Akron’s Greystone Hall, I would not have been
surprised when I saw the production of “Freud’s Last Session” by Mark St.
Germain.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'">The story takes place in the London
study of Sigmund Freud (Brian Zoldessy). On the day that Great Britain enters World War II, C.S. Lewis
(Keith Stevens), a young Oxford
professor, visits at Freud’s invitation. They discuss God, sex, the start of
World War II and suicide. On the radio, they listen to reports of Germany invading Poland.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'">Lewis was raised in a strict religious home and wrote books that
deal with religious themes. He is known for “The Screwtape Letters” and “The
Chronicles of Narnia.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'">The founding father of psychoanalysis, Freud was a self-proclaimed
atheist.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'">The two men are amiable. Each respects the other’s intellect and
professional accomplishments. However, soon into the play, Lewis realizes
something is wrong. Freud explains he has cancer of the mouth. A doctor has
removed his palate and constructed an artificial palate, which doesn’t fit well
and causes him to cough and bleed. Twenty days after this meeting of Freud and
Lewis, Freud will die.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'">Freud talks at length about killing himself if the pain becomes
too difficult to continue. Lewis insists God gives life and only God can take a
life. Freud reminds Lewis he doesn’t believe in a God and, therefore, he can
end his life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'">Lewis panics when the sirens sound, warning of a bombing. The
siren leads Lewis to talk about being a soldier in World War I. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'">Lewis has seen death on the battlefield; Freud faces his own death
— either by suicide or by his body giving out from the cancer.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'">I have seen both Zoldessy and Stevens in other plays. The
two men are at the top of their game in this production.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'">Director Neil Thackaberry did an excellent job with a difficult
script and a small cast. He helped his actors make their character’s points,
and these points (war, suicide, God and life and death) are not easy topics to
bring to the stage.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'">MaryJo Alexander (costumes and props) did a wonderful job dressing
the set, which was designed by Rory Wohl. The latter created Freud’s office on
a stage, raked to about 38 degrees. Of course, a feature of the set was the
daybed, where Freud’s patients would lie for psychoanalysis. Alexander dressed
the set with appropriate antiques, African masks and other items Freud would
have collected in his life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'">“Freud’s Last Session” surfaces significant problems in the world
and, fortunately, doesn’t attempt to solve all of them. Certainly, when people
leave Greystone Hall, they have more to talk about than where they parked the
car.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'">The play runs about 90 minutes without an intermission. “Freud’s
Last Session” will be on the stage through March 17. For tickets, call
330-374-7568.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'">David Ritchey has a Ph.D. in communications and is a professor of
communications at The University
of Akron. He is a member
of the American Theatre Critics Association.</span></i><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman'"></span></p>