Content Resources Page

Content Analysis

Freud’s Last Session

By Mark St. Germain

PLAY SYNOPSIS

Imagine stepping into a room where two of history’s greatest minds battle it out over life’s biggest questions. Freud’s Last Session is a thrilling, thought-provoking play that brings together Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, and C.S. Lewis, famed author and theologian. Set in London on the eve of World War II, this gripping drama is filled with humor, tension, and deep philosophical debates.

CHARACTERS

Sigmund Freud - age 83

C.S. Lewis - age 40

PLACE

Freud’s study

20 Maresfield Gardens

Hampstead, NW London

THEMES

The conflict between faith and reason

The nature of suffering

The search for meaning

The relationship between science and belief

CONTENT FOR PARENTAL CONSIDERATION

MATURE SUBJECT MATTER

There is a loud air raid siren where Lewis and Freud put on gas masks for protection and afterwards Lewis has some graphic dialogue about when he was in war.

“When I heard the siren, I was back there. The smell of explosives. Bodies all around me, horribly smashed men still trying to move like half-crushed beetles. Bombs like hailstones.   My friend exploding ten feet in front of me I never even felt the shrapnel. Just him, pieces of him, hitting my chest, my face.”

Freud: “Pujol called himself “Le Petomane” - The Great Fartiste.  I saw him in Paris at Moulin Rouge. Pujol farted sounds of cannon fire and thunderstorms.  He played “O Sole Mio” through a tube in his anus, then had it puff a cigarette!  For his encore, he blew out a candle from across the stage!”

SUICIDE

When Freud is discussing how bad his cancer is he states that he has a pact with his doctor that he will kill himself before the cancer kills him.

Freud: I’m saying I will kill myself before the cancer does.  Don’t look at me that way.  You don’t need to say it: Suicide is wrong and a sin!  Then look into my mouth and you will see hell has arrived already.

SEXUAL DISCUSSION

The following conversation happens after Freud lights up a cigar:

Freud: Of course.  But I am determined to revel in my only sexual pleasure left. I’ve bid farewell to my phallic and anal stages and regressed to my oral.

Lewis: That we’ve been talking this long and this is the first mention of sex.’

Freud: Your definition is too narrow.  I apply the term “sexual” to all interactions that bring pleasurable feelings.  Genital contact, an infant sucking at its mother’s breast or the delight of a four-year-old girl sitting on her father’s knee.  Sexuality is the font of all happiness.

Lewis: There’s more to happiness than that.  Sex is only one of many God-given pleasures, and not the most lasting.

Freud: Extraordinary. We’ve been talking about sex for less than a minute before you brought God into it.  Still, despite constant battle with church propaganda, we have made great progress overcoming our repressions.

Lewis: Progress? We’ve gone from sex being the subject never spoken of to our being unable to talk about anything else.  It’s as if we invented it.

Freud: There is no appetite more powerful.

Lewis: But it’s grown ridiculous in proportion to its function. Compare it to our appetite for food. The audience at a striptease pays to watch a girl take her clothes off.  But what if they paid instead for the sign of a naked mutton chop? Wouldn’t you say they’re taking their meat a bit too seriously?

Freud: But sex is more complicated than hunger.

Lewis: On the contrary. We over-simplify it, turning it into the lie that sex under any circumstances is normal and healthy.

Freud: So you are an authority on what is “normal” and “healthy?’

Lewis: There is a sexual code running through the Old and New Testaments. Sex is an act that should be shared between two people who are committed to each other.

Freud: Ah, the Bible! For a moment I thought you were thinking for yourself! The Bible is a bestiary of sexuality. You selectively quote texts like a priest determined to terrify his congregation. No sex before marriage? It’s not only naive, it’s mindless cruelty. Like sending a young man off to perform his first concerto with an orchestra when the only times he’s ever played his piccolo was alone in his room!

GORE

Throughout the play we are made aware that Freud has mouth cancer and a prosthesis in his mouth that causes pain.  Occasionally we see him dab his mouth with a handkerchief and there are spots of blood on it.  This progresses later in the play when Freud starts coughing and the handkerchief is then soaked with blood.  In this scene Freud starts choking and Lewis has to assist him with urgently taking his prosthesis out of his mouth.

RUNNING TIME

75 minutes 

No intermission

SHOW DATES

Oct. 1 - Oct. 19 - 2025

WHAT IS THE RECOMMENDED AGE FOR FREUD’S LAST SESSION

If this play was a movie we would give it a rating of PG.  We recommend an age of 12 and up for this performance due to the mature subject matter.

HOW MUCH ARE TICKETS TO FREUD’S LAST SESSION?

Tickets prices vary between $25 and $80 depending on where you sit in the theater.

Executive Artistic Director’s Note

Two brilliant minds.  Two differing world views.  Mark. St. Germain’s thought-provoking, funny, and incredibly engaging play about a fictional debate on the eve of WWII between Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis is one of the sharpest two-person plays ever written.  Wrestling with both the greatest questions of the time and eternal questions that are significantly more consequential, Freud’s Last Session is a show that will leave a lasting mark on both the mind and the heart.  This will be our second time producing this show and the first time on the George stage.  Not only does the play stand alone, but there’s an added bonus of a philosophical and theological preparation for the next show in our season—a musical adaptation of Lewis’ most beloved Children’s classic.

Theatre is an art form that from its inception has had the proven power to move and to stir the human spirit. This can have a wide variety of manifestations. We are often stirred up, and that kind of event can have us needing to talk to someone about it. We recommend that you find a licensed mental healthcare professional to help you work through difficult feelings that may have been stirred up by a play. You should always work with someone that you have a great connection with. If you need help starting that process, we recommend our partners at Ellie Mental Health as a starting place.

You might also be stirred to do something about how a particular play made you feel. Below we have provided a quick link to be able to donate to us here at the A. D. Players at the George Theatre. As a 501(c)3, we rely heavily on donations to continue the work that we do. If, however, you want to do something meaningful about some of the issues addressed by our shows, we are also including links to organizations that do meaningful work in the areas addressed by the content of our show. These are not exhaustive options, but merely starting places to help you on your journey to continue to effect change in your world.