MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
Latest editorial
Intriguing confrontation let down by script limitations
BEST EFFORT: Simon Bird as Freud and Séan Browne as Lewis
New releases from Mountain, Soul Asylum and Michael McDermott
ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
Freud’s Last Session
King’s Head Theatre
CS LEWIS’S 1933 novel The Pilgrim’s Regress featured a character called Sigismund Enlightenment who is referred to as a “vain and ignorant old man.” It was a barely veiled swipe at the psychoanalyst Sigismund Freud whose almost total disregard for religion rubbed the recently converted author up the wrong way.
Perhaps fortunately the two never met, but their ideas have been brought together frequently, most notably in Armand Nicholi’s book A Question of God which provided the inspiration for Mark St Germain’s 2011 play.
It is September 1 1939 and Lewis (Sean Browne) has made the train journey from Oxford, against the traffic of those leaving London with war looming, to visit the ageing Freud (Simon Bird) in his Hampstead living room. The conversation quickly turns to God. Freud cannot fathom why someone as educated as Lewis “can abandon truth and embrace an insidious lie” in the form of Christianity.
More from this author
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
MAYER WAKEFIELD wonders why this 1978 drama merits a revival despite demonstrating that the underlying theme of racism in the UK remains relevant
MAYER WAKEFIELD speaks to playwright Richard Bean about his new play Reykjavik that depicts the exploitation of the Hull-based “far-fleet” trawlermen
MAYER WAKEFIELD finds himself caught in the crossfire during a riveting piece of activist theatre
![CS Lewis in 1947 [Pic: Scan of photograph by Arthur Strong]](https://dev.morningstaronline.co.uk/sites/default/files/styles/desktop/public/2025-04/Untitled-1.jpg.webp?itok=2jzsrA-s)
