On Now: La Última Sesión de Freud

On the eve of Britain’s entry into World War II, Sigmund Freud, a Jew exiled to London from Vienna, is plagued with oral cancer, fast approaching death, and remains as avowedly unconvinced as ever, by the illusion of God.

Enter C.S. Lewis, an established middle-aged novelist and Oxford academic with unparalleled imaginative gifts who fervently believes in God.

This is the sure-to-go-well scenario concocted by the US playwright Mark St. Germain, whose thought-provoking play, ‘Freud’s last session’, debuted in 2009 and went on to win the Off Broadway Alliance’s Best Play Award in 2011.

Now, starring Jorge Suarez as Freud and Luis Machín as C.S. Lewis, Daniel Veronese’s Spanish language adaptation ensures all of the power, humour, and intimacy of St. Germain’s fictional rendezvous remains alive, if unwell.

The concept of a two-man play always invites the danger of coming off static, or lacking in the crises of deceit that rivet our taste for dramatic irony. But here, the thrill and charm are quite the opposite: two unacquainted men are brought together by fame, in a place as candidly transparent as the office of psychoanalysis’ founding father.

What you lose in classical arc is repaid in full with a pervading sense of reality enacted for voyeurs who aren’t even there.

Essentially, what makes ‘La última sesión de Freud’ work so well is its scenery, coupled with the hour of war scenario grounding the encounter.

Freud’s office, tasteful and pacifying, is spacious and grandfatherly, made even more interesting by the fact that Lewis’ visit is not technically an appointment.

Several times, the two men joke about Freud’s psychoanalytic couch, creating a mood that despite their levity has all the emotional investment of a therapeutic meeting risen to confrontation by mutual respect.

It is because of this admiration that C.S. Lewis, in St. Germain’s alternative history, pays visit to Freud just three weeks before the psychoanalyst’s assisted suicide in September of 1939.

Lewis, having converted to Christianity in 1931, feels compelled to debate with Freud over the existence of God. Having read Freud’s work against theism, he longs to understand, from a place both personal and academic, why Freud so vehemently denies the Creator.

Jorge Suarez (who previously starred in ‘Gorda’ and ‘El desarollo de la civilización venidera’, both directed by Veronese) does a masterful job of capturing the wit and erudition of an enervating Freud. More barbed than rigorous, less stern than confounded, Suarez manages to skilfully portray an incredible mind, advanced to the point of accomplished detachment.

It’s still Freud, so he is naturally strident and animated, but impending death and the prospect of world conflagration imbue his character with something very troubled that can’t, however, be troubled anymore.

In contrast, Luis Machín (‘Felicidades’ and ‘Lobo’) portrays a C.S. Lewis who is fleet, passionate, and desperately earnest. Though he knows what to expect from Freud, he comes prepared with counterarguments and holistic appeals to Freud’s uncompromising reason.

As the two men carry on their debate – Lewis equating psychoanalysis with intellectual religion and Freud swatting away God as an infantile fantasy – the conversation and circumstances take multiple turns in subject, intensity, and competitive edge, bringing the men together at a historically fateful moment.

Intermittently, one or the other of the characters turns on the radio to hear the latest war developments, heavily laden with grave and devout overtones.Several times, Freud must excuse himself as his late-stage cancer prompts uncontrollable coughing – complete with saliva and blood – or to answer phone calls from his daughter Anna or the doctor, who is unforgivably late.

Perhaps the most fascinating element of Veronese’s adaptation is the way it calmly engages so many big questions that probably make an overview sound trite. It’s funny in order to be just so serious, but sad in order to be an enduring reminder of a time when these questions defined the future of the world we now inhabit. Maybe even more relevant now than ever before.

Some will object that the canvas here is too broad, or the themes too boilerplate, but they would really be missing the point. What ‘La última sesión de Freud’ reveals, and with great success, is the ultimately social and personal basis of our systems of belief – right down to the loss of a daughter, a friend at war, or the sources of inspiration for artistic and scientific genius.

God, love, sex, and the meaning of life may be suitable tag words for this play, but overwhelmingly it is a display of the walls we build up and break down in dialogue with ourselves and others.