Britain is on the brink of war in 1939. Sigmund Freud (Finlay McLean), the great Austrian psychoanalyst, is dying of oral cancer. And he has invited young academic and writer CS Lewis (John Kay Steel) to join him in discussing life, philosophy and religion over a pot of tea.
Freud’s Last Session is a one-act play written in 2009 by Mark St Germain, and filmed in 2023 in a version starring Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Goode. For the Tabard revival, David Ian Neville takes on directing duties for this limited 3-week run.
Lewis is a convert to Christianity, a devout believer in the word of God and the teachings of Christ. For Freud, religion is a way to demonstrate power and his arguments are far more profoundly humanist in tone.
The two men delve deep into the questions around morality, childhood – both had difficult relationships with their fathers – sex, choice and the minutiae of science and human suffering. For Lewis, the Bible is the text that dictates how life is led, and what is right and wrong.
For Freud, who is resolved to end his own suffering on his own terms, religion is just an illusion, a mode of wish-fulfilment in something beyond our span of life. Both men are astute and persuasive in their arguments; each playing the other as if they were analyst and patient (or heavenly confessor and human soul).
The set design of Freud’s Hampstead room offers a desk, couch, and radio. The desk displays some of the antique figures from world religions Freud has collected over a lifetime, to Lewis’s vague amusement.
Both men rely deeply on women in their lives: Freud on his daughter Anna, a child psychoanalyst; Lewis on a Mrs Moore, the mother of a friend who died in battle in 1918. Freud believes in sexual freedom; Lewis, unmarried, retains his virginity.
They connect over private fears. Lewis recalls the horror of war and witnessing death at close quarters. Freud, despite his wish for suicide, still reaches out for life when it matters.
It is not necessary to understand the arguments in depth to appreciate this play, nor to have anything beyond peripheral knowledge of either man. Freud is widely remembered as “the father of psychoanalysis”; Lewis for his fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia, where the lion Aslan stands in for Jesus Christ, or rather Lewis’s version of Christ in a world populated by talking animals.
Freud’s Last Session is very much a play of words. Even the use of radio broadcasts from Prime Minister Chamberlain or King George VI is indicative of the argument, as the Royal speech mentions God. Freud, who was Jewish and fled to England as the Nazis took power, even retains a habit of using phrases like “for God’s sake”.
This is a play of thought and reason which reaches no clear conclusions. War was declared on 3 Sep 1939. Freud died 20 days later, helped by a morphine overdose from his doctor. There is no historical reason to believe Freud and Lewis ever met, so the play is purely fictional and inspired by their works and Dr Armand M Nicholi, Jr’s book The Question of God (2002), which placed their ideas and arguments side by side.
McLean gives a quiet dignity to Freud while ensuring his adherence to his arguments. Steel’s Lewis is more unsure, respectful, curious. You sense they could have been professional friends despite their differences.
I’m giving this 3.5 stars for provoking thought and providing a good evening’s entertainment.
Freud’s Last Session continues at the Tabard until 28 Nov.
Photo credit: Hunter Collins Photography