Freud Gets a Session in Los Angeles

 Martin Rayner and Mark H. Dold in the Off-Broadway production. Photo: Kevin Sprague

Freud's Last Session, New York’s long-running hit play by Mark St. Germain, is set to open in Los Angeles this winter starring Judd Hirsch as Sigmund Freud and Tom Cavanagh as C. S. Lewis under the direction of Tyler Marchant, who helmed the original New York production.

Presented by The Broad Stage and CRC Productions, Freud's Last Session will begin performances Jan. 11 for a strictly limited engagement through Feb. 10 at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica.

The Off-Broadway premiere engagement of Freud's Last Session received good reviews (read our review here) and had a two-year run. The show is also currently playing to sold-out houses at Chicago’s Mercury Theatre as well as in Buenos Aires, Stockholm and Dallas. Additional productions are set to open this season in London, Mexico City, Sydney, Madrid, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Copenhagen, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Cleveland, Tucson, and Honolulu. Freud's Last Sessionwas produced Off-Broadway by Carolyn Rossi Copeland, Robert Stillman and Jack Thomas.

The play centers on legendary psychoanalyst Dr. Sigmund Freud, who invites the young, rising academic star C. S. Lewis to his home in London. Lewis, expecting to be called on the carpet for satirizing Freud in a recent book, soon realizes Freud has a much more significant agenda.

On the day England enters World War II, Freud and Lewis clash on the existence of God, love, sex, and the meaning of life – only two weeks before Freud chooses to take his own. Not just a powerful debate, this is a profound and deeply touching play about two men who boldly addressed the greatest questions of all time. Mark St. Germain’s celebrated new play was suggested by the bestselling book The Question of God by Harvard’s Dr. Armand M. Nicholi, Jr. 

Performance schedule: Tuesday through Friday evenings at 7:30, Saturdays at 4  and 8 pm and Sundays at 1 and 5 pm. The running time is 84 minutes with no intermission. Tickets are available at www.TheBroadStage.com or by calling 310-434-3200. The Broad Stage is located at 1310 11^th St. inside the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center. Parking is free.