.jpg)
Freud’s Last Session makes its European debut at the King’s Head Theatre featuring real life Psychiatrist turned actor Dr Julian Bird (Eastenders, The Tudors) playing the titular role. The play is written by Mark St. Germain and has direction by Peter Darney with Set and Costume Design by Brad Caleb Lee and Sound design by Sam Glossop.
The first of September, 1939. Sigmund Freud, the world renowned psychoanalyst awaits the visit of soon to be legendary author C.S. Lewis on the day World War 2 is declared. Lewis, a former atheist turned Christian is expecting to be taken to task for his recent satirisation of Freud in a book. However, the impending war and Freud’s failing health catalyses a far deeper conversation as they clash about the existence of God, love, sex, and the meaning of life - only two weeks before Freud, with his doctor’s help, takes his own.
Through an imagined conversation between a psychiatrist on the brink and the academic who would go on to write books steeped in theology, the play gives a heightened tension to the age old questions of faith, love, sex and existence itself.
Speaking about the show, Darney said, "Freud’s Last Session may be based in 1939 - but it feels so relevant and not just because Freud and CS Lewis’ work still touches us today. The play looks at a time when the potential for tragedy increased and the norms of peoples lives were disrupted; and how that catalyses thinking around what’s really important. What we believe in. What we will fight for. And when it’s time to surrender.”
Kings Head Theatre Associate Artist Peter Darney is a writer/director working in Theatre and Film. He wrote and directed the award winning 5 Guys Chillin which has been produced Off-Broadway, Toronto, Sydney, Paris, Dublin, Edinburgh, Brighton and London, and was named one of ’Ten Plays That Shaped Queer Theatre History’ by the Evening Standard. Directing credits include: The Spy Plays (Above The Stag Theatre) The Drag (Arcola Theatre) High Ridin’ (Kings Head Theatre) Free and Proud (Theatre 503/Assembly Festival) The Revengers Tragedy (The Rose Playhouse) James Dean Is Dead (Kings Head Theatre) Pinocchio (Sutton Theatres), Signal Failure (SoHo Playhouse-Off Broadway 6 week run/ The Underbelly Edinburgh). Kindness- BBC Radio 4 (Pick of the week- the Independent), Githa (St James Theatre, W/E and York Theatre Royal) 6 degree’s (Soho Theatre: Main House), Frank Sent Me (Soho Theatre, Best Play 2013 Writer’s Avenue), Edward II (The Rose Playhouse ), Mysterious Skin (Gilded Balloon, The Drill Hall, Teacher’s Club, Dublin), Arden of Faversham (The Rose Playhouse), Beautiful thing (BAC). Peter is a member of BFI X BAFTA Crew, and currently has film projects in development with companies including BBC Wales, Ffilm Cymru, Fullwell 73 and Empty Room Productions.
Julian Bird trained as an actor at Royal Central in his sixties after a career as physician and psychiatrist and medical school teacher in London and in USA. Theatre work includes: Much Ado about nothing (Park Theatre), A Safer Space (Theatre 503), The Merry Wives of Windsor (Globe Theatre Tour) King Lear (Rose Theatre Bankside) Tronald Dump (Theatre Royal Stratford East) and 'Three Sisters' at The Arts Theatre West End. TV includes ‘The Tudors’, ‘Lines In The Sand’ and “East Enders’.
Brad Caleb Lee is an international award winning visual dramaturge, assistant director, producer, and editor. His collaborators include Chicago Fringe Opera, Wales Millennium Centre, Summer Theatre of New Canaan, Prague Shakespeare Company, Filament Theatre, Bros do Prose, Welsh National Opera, The Richard Burton Theatre Company, Monomoy Theatre, and ELANFrantoio. He holds an MA from The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, BA & BSC from The University of Alabama, and membership in USITT, SBTD, & OISTAT.