Wilmington, DE – Bootless Stageworks is proud to present the Delaware premiere of Mark St. Germain’s award-winning, two man play, FREUD’S LAST SESSION.
September 3,1939 would have been a very good day for God to have made a personal appearance in London. War with Germany is imminent and terrifying to Dr. Sigmund Freud, the 83-year-old Jewish refugee from Vienna. Dying of oral cancer. Freud’s upper jaw and palate have been surgically removed and replaced with an ill-fitting prosthesis, which fills him with a world of pain. His own beloved dog will not approach him because of the smell of decayed flesh. Further, the Nazis have taken over his lifelong Viennese home, and driven him to exile in London. With disaster in the air, Freud welcomes a visitor: the author C. S. Lewis (pre-publication of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”). Freud wants to know how such an intellectual man could suddenly abandon his atheistic ways and turn to religion or, as Freud puts it, “embrace an insidious lie.”
Mark St. Germain’s story is essentially a play of ideas – a passionate debate about the human soul. But it is more than a dialectic. “What really attracted me was the idea of putting two figures onstage who believed totally opposite things. The conflict was already there, but the challenge was to put two living, breathing human beings onstage, instead of two sets of ideas.” – Mark St. Germain.
Winner of Off-Broadway Alliance Best Play Award and inspired by Dr. Armand S. Nicholi Jr’s 2003 book, The Question of God, FREUD’S LAST SESSION is a 75 minute meeting that quickly turns into a lively exchange, one which threatens to turn into ugly confrontation but always stops short. The two men’s conversation is punctuated by radio news bulletins, including Neville Chamberlain’s declaration of war against Germany and George VI’s eve-of-war speech to the British people (“With God’s help, we shall prevail”). FREUD”S LAST SESSION opened Off-Broadway in summer 2010 and closed in 2012, an unusually long run for such a modest production, attributed in some circles to positive word of mouth. Sometimes it seemed that every psychiatrist in New York had seen the show, and that included the Dr. Ruth Westheimer.
Mark St. Germain’s works include: Camping With Henry And Tom (Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards), Out of Gas On Lover’s Leap, Forgiving Typhoid Mary (Time Magazine’s “Year’s Ten Best”), Ears On A Beatle, The God Committee, The Collyer Brothers At Home, The Gifts of The Magi (co-written with Randy Courts), The Book of the Dun Cow (co-written by Randy Courts), Johnny Pye and the Fool-Killer (winner of an AT&T “New Plays For The Nineties Award”), Jack’s Holiday, and Stand By Your Man: The Tammy Wynette Story. He is an alumnus of New Dramatists, a member of the Dramatist Guild, and the Writer’s Guild East. He is the recipient of the Joe A Callaway Award and the New Voices in American Theatre award. Television credits include The Cosby Show, Crime and Punishment and The Wright Verdicts. As a personal project, he directed and co-produced the documentary “MY DOG: An Unconditional Love Story”, featuring, among others, Richard Gere, Glenn Close and Lynn Redgrave.
Bootless Stageworks is proud to presents the Delaware premiere of FREUD’S LAST SESSION with Jim Ludovici of Media, PA portraying Dr. Freud and Kienan McCartney of Philadelphia portraying C.S. Lewis.
All performances take place at Bootless located within St. Stephen’s Church, 1301 N. Broom St, Wilmington, DE, 19806. The venue offers free parking, full ADA access, and is within walking distance to several Trolley Square restaurants and pubs for pre-show dining and after-show drinks. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit www.bootless.org.
FREUD’S LAST SESSION By Mark St. Germain / Directed by Rosanne DellAversano
February 19 @ 8:00 pm – PREVIEW SHOW – ALL SEAT $10
February 20 @ 8:00 pm – PREVIEW SHOW – ALL SEAT $10
February 26 @ 8:00 pm – OPENING NIGHT
February 27 @ 8:00 pm
February 28 @ 3:00 pm
March 3 @ 7:30 pm – PAY WHAT YOU CAN TICKET NIGHT
March 4 @ 8:00 pm
March 5 @ 8:00 pm – CLOSING NIGHT – CELEBRATE WITH CAKE & CAST
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Bootless Stageworks provides and cultivates theater experiences among people wanting to be entertained intellectually, aesthetically and emotionally through challenging stage presentations. A collaborative company of Emerging Artists and dedicated volunteers, Bootless Stageworks creates artistically original, high-quality theatrical performances for the enrichment of target audiences.
Theater/Organization Bootless Stageworks
Theater/Organization Website: http://www.bootless.org
Theater/Organization Address: 1301 North Broom Street Bootless @ St. Stephen’s Church Wilmington, Delaware 19806 (Map It)
Theater/Organization Phone: (302) 887-9300
