If Sigmund Freud, an atheist and empirical evidence freak met C.S. Lewis, a fantasy writer on a crusade for Jesus, what would their conversation be like? Now playing at the Century Theatre is a well-articulated drama, Freud’s Last Session, which proposes to delineate the salient points each intellectual might have argued. Starring Mitch Greenberg as Freud, and Cory Krebsbach as Clive Staple Lewis, this play by Mark St. Germain is an extrapolation of Dr. Armand M. Nicholi, Jr.’s book The Question of God.
Erudite and polished, the two leading men promulgate a realistic and compelling depiction of the protagonists. Arguments are well-supported by logical reasoning and philosophical thought. Both Greenberg and Krebsbach have impeccable diction, making the Teutonic and Oxfordshire accents clearly understandable to tonight’s audience.
The Century Theatre is an excellent venue for the play’s setting, presenting an understated elegance and charming ambiance, while comfortable for patrons. The only uncomfortable moment was an ill-conceived proposition that Freud asked Lewis to extract a bloody prosthesis from Freud’s mouth, whereupon Freud dipped the implant into clear water, coloring it gory red. Ish.
Notwithstanding the scene designed to shock the audience, a titillating story appearing in a decidedly intellectual conceptualization, Freud’s Last Session is remarkably interesting and thought-provoking. It towers far above most of the drearily commonplace and often predictable theatrical analyses of the meaning of life and death. Lewis, Professor of English at Oxford, once said, “The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.” Freud’s Last Session achieves this lofty goal.
Freud’s Last Session plays at the Century Theatre now through November 20, 2011.
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