St. Germain’s work receives a fine production in Coronado

By Charlene Baldridge

The Lamb’s Players Theatre production of Mark St. Germain’s “Freud’s Last Session” gives producing artistic director Robert Smyth a rare chance to remind audiences what else he can do, which is exceptional work as an actor. This play, in particular, suits him to a T. In the role of the much younger C.S. Lewis, director Deborah Gilmore Smyth cast Fran Gercke.

The play is set in 1939 London.

Suffering terminal cancer, noted atheist and father of modern psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, having fled Vienna and the Nazis a year earlier, requests a visit from the recently converted former atheist Lewis, who is soon to achieve fame with his books “The Chronicles of Narnia” and “The Screwtape Letters.”

As Lewis and Freud, Gercke and Smyth make sharp-witted sparring partners, one representing faith and the other, intellect. Laughs abound and there is much common ground.

Gercke presents an insecure, physically ill-at-ease Lewis, who would have been 41 at the time. His appointment with Freud in Hempstead, NW London, coincides with Germany’s Sept. 3, 1939, invasion of Poland.

Believing he’s been summoned because he wrote something that offended the 83-year-old Freud, Lewis is apprehensive and defensive. He never achieves any sense of ease. Gercke fails to thoroughly evince Lewis’s deep humanity and genuine concern. Granted Lewis is young, but in his own way equal to Freud’s greatness and genius. As the two-handed dialectic unfolds, it’s as if Lewis still feels inept and unequal. He is appalled, perhaps, but certainly not at a loss.

Smyth’s Freud is extraordinarily touching as the great man in the extreme, final phase of the disease that has eaten away his jaw. Freud is almost too proud to ask for help. The 11th hour scene in which Lewis is forced to come to Freud’s aid somewhat redeems St. Germain’s largely cerebral play.

If such an imagined 90-minute engagement, beautifully designed by Brian Prather, is your cup of tea, “Freud’s Last Session” will delight you as well as students of either or both men. It’s a perfect fit for Lamb’s audiences.

The play was written St. Germain and was suggested by Dr. Armand Nicholi, Jr.’s, “The Question of God.” Nathan Peirson is lighting designer, Juliet Czoka, the costume designer, and director Deborah Gilmour Smyth doubles as the sound designer.

Last October this off-Broadway play was produced by North Coast Repertory Theatre with Bruce Turk as C.S. Lewis and Michael Santo as Sigmund Freud. Comparisons are indeed odious, but observing the differing interplay of the two productions in close proximity is a special treat for the theatergoer. Each has its virtues.

— Charlene Baldridge has been writing about the arts since 1979. You can follow her blog at charlenebaldridge.com or reach her at [email protected].