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<p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;text-transform:uppercase"><br></span></p><p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;text-transform:uppercase"><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)">••••••••••••••••••••••••••</span><br>
</span></p><p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino;text-transform:uppercase">FREUD’S LAST SESSION </span><span style="font-family:Palatino">a
fascinating look at belief or lack of belief</span><span style="font-family:Palatino"></span></p>
<p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Roy Berko</span></p>
<p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><i style><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Palatino">Member,
American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle</span></i></p>
<p class="" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:6pt"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Sigmund
Freud</span><span style="font-family:Palatino"> founded the discipline of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoanalysis"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">psychoanalysis</span></a>.<span style> </span>His concepts centered on sexual drives,
parental influences, transference, dream interpretation and unconscious
desires.<span style> </span>Known as an atheist,<span style> </span>he was not without religion.<span style> </span>He was an assimilated secular Jew. </span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:6pt"><span style="font-family:Palatino">C. S. Lewis</span><span style="font-family:Palatino"> was a novelist, academic, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_studies"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">medievalist</span></a>, literary
critic, essayist, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theologian"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">lay
theologian</span></a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_apologetics"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">Christian apologist</span></a>
who wrote such works as <i style><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screwtape_Letters"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">The Screwtape Letters</span></a></i> and <i style><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">The Chronicles of Narnia</span></a></i>.<span style> </span>At age 15 he declared himself an atheist.<span style> </span>At 32 he returned to the Anglican
Communion and fervently re-embraced God and Christianity.</span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:6pt"><span style="font-family:Palatino">What would have happened if these two
men had met to discuss their conflicting ideas?<span style> </span>They may, in fact, have met as there is an illusion in
Freud’s records that he had an appointment with someone who may have been
Lewis.<span style> </span>If the duo met or not, we
can eavesdrop in on playwright Mark St. Germain’s<span style> </span>concept of the interaction in FREUD’S LAST SESSION, a </span><span style="font-family:Palatino">two-character "what-if" <span style>play</span></span><span style="font-family:Palatino"> now on stage at Actor’s Summit.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:6pt"><span style="font-family:Palatino">The play is based on the </span><span style="font-family:Palatino">best selling book<b> </b><i style><span style>The Question of God</span></i> by Dr. Armand
M. Nicholi, Jr.</span><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span><span style="font-family:Palatino"></span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:6pt"><span style="font-family:Palatino">The setting:
Freud’s study in his London house.<span style>
</span>It’s September 3, 1939, and, as the room’s radio informs us, the war
between England and Germany is about to break out.<span style> </span>As the two debate, air raid sirens wail and Freud, a life-long
smoker, is pain-ripped due to mouth cancer which requires him to wear an
uncomfortable oral prosthesis. </span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:6pt"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Freud purported that those </span><span style="font-family:Palatino">who believed in God were suffering from obsessional neurosis.<span style> </span>Lewis thought that human existence
depended on the belief in a supreme being.<span style> </span>A lively, contentious, yet joke-filled debate takes place,
and though they approach ideas quite differently, they find themselves bonding
in ways they might not have expected.</span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:6pt"><span style="font-family:Palatino">The script is filled with many insightful
statements and questions that can excite or incite strong feelings.<span style> </span>These include:<span style> </span>“Satan is a brilliant creation,” “Is there
a moral law?”<span style> </span>“Is shame a good
thing?” “Are our deepest desires ever satisfied?”<span style> </span>“The God of the Bible is a busybody.” “Is the story of
Christ the greatest myth of all time?” <span style> </span>There is also the revelation that both Freud and Lewis had
bad relationships with their fathers, which taught them “how not to be adults.”</span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:6pt"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Hanging over the end of the play
is whether Freud will, as he has indicated, destroy himself before the cancer
can do it.<span style> </span>We do know, in fact,
that two weeks after the date of the play, Freud, assisted by his doctor, did
end his own life. This adds to the intrigue of the script as Freud tells Lewis
that if Lewis is right about his belief in the afterlife, he can tell Freud
about it in heaven, but if Freud is right, then neither of them will ever know
the truth. </span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:6pt"><span style="font-family:Palatino">The 90-minute intermissionless
production, which is mainly talk with little action, is excellent.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:6pt"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Brian Zoldessy, last year’s Cleveland
Critics Circle and Times Theatre Tributes best actor winner for his portrayal
of Larry Kramer in Ensemble’s THE NORMAL HEART, is compelling as Freud.<span style> </span>He inhabits the role to the degree that
the viewer forgets s/he is in a theatre and is actually part of the conversation
and partaking in the character’s physical pain.<span style> </span>His slight Austrian accent allows for the correct effect,
without making understanding difficult.</span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:6pt"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Keith Stevens holds his own as C. S.
Lewis.<span style> </span>His English accent comes
and goes, but he is consistent in developing Lewis’s uptight moralistic attitude.<span style> </span>His highlight is a scene in which he
has a PTSD-type<span style> </span>reaction to a
radio command to put on of gas masks based on his horrific military battle experiences
in World War I.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:6pt"><span style="font-family:Palatino">No credit is given in the program to
whoever collected the numerous props on stage, but bravo to that person.<span style> </span>Ditto for the set design which well
illustrates the script’s line of “One hundred colors around you.”<span style> </span>The rugs, Freud’s famous psychoanalysts
couch, and decorations all set the right mood.</span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:6pt"><i style><span style="font-family:Palatino">Capsule judgement:<span style> </span>FREUD’S
LAST SESSION is a must see, fascinating theatre, for anyone who is interested
in a philosophical, thought laced drama, with laughter and fine acting.</span></i><span style="font-family:Palatino"></span></p>
<p class="" style="margin-bottom:6pt"><span style="font-family:Palatino">For tickets to FREUD’S LAST SESSION, which
runs through March 17, call </span><span style="font-family:Palatino">330-374-7568 or go to </span><a href="http://www.actorssummit.org/"><span style="font-family:Palatino">www.actorssummit.org</span></a><span style="font-family:Palatino"></span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino"><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)">************************************ </span><br></span></p>
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