Memphis, Freud, and C.S. Lewis. . .

I took my first trip to New York my junior year of college with my undergraduate program and saw a bunch of shows! Two shows I can think of that certainly pertain to this assignment are Memphis: The Musical and Freud's Last Session. The first is one that I still consider one my favorite musicals. The world of Memphis was wonderfully executed. I knew when it was night versus when it was day, the period style clothing perfectly suited the 1950's, the accents were wonderful, and the acting and singing were off the charts! After hearing their final number, "Steal Your Rock n Roll," I left the theatre feeling rejuvenated and excited! I could live life fully! I didn’t have the restrictions of segregation and racism holding me back!  I could move to New York and pursue my dreams like Felicia! No one could stop me! No one could steal my rock n roll!  This show definitely created some real emotions within me.  I felt it well into the next day. 

The next day, I saw a play off-broadway in a little black-box called Freud's Last Session. This show centers on a fictional meeting of two real life historical figures: Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis. They simply sit in Freud's office, two weeks before Freud's death, and have a discussion about sex, love, and God for two and a half hours. I felt like I was a fly on the wall. It was probably a mix of the black box and the intimate nature of the set. It was a little too "real." I won't lie. I was so tired from the travel, 3 hour production of Memphis from the night before, and the fact that these guys were just talking and talking and talking, that I fell asleep. At a talk-back with the actors that portrayed Freud and Lewis, we learned that this "meet-up" between the two figures never could have actually happened. It was a "what if." The actor who portrayed C.S. Lewis, the famed theologian, actually did no historical research on his character past the point that the playwright set his age. He said he didn't want to think too far ahead. He wanted to portray his character as realistically as possible.

A quote from Robin Soans in "Verbatim Theatre" says, "How is (documentary theatre) different from well-written and well-constructed imagined plays? The answer is: it isn't. The categorization is irksome. Verbatim plays are far more like conventional plays than is generally acknowledged."

          When I think back, Freud's Last Session was almost a documentary drama without the verbatim. It was a mix of the real (the characters) with the "well-constructed and well-imagined" (the meeting of the characters). I now find it very intriguing that the actor playing C.S. Lewis went to such length to only study a certain part of his character's history for a piece of theatre that, historically, never could have happened.

                Memphis and Freud’s Last Session definitely have similarities in that they are both fictional pieces of theatre.  The latter, however, in my opinion, offers a much more naturalistic view of theatre, despite the fact that it’s fictional and not just because people didn’t randomly burst into song.  Like I said, it was almost “too real” and, despite the fact that we know the exchange never could have happened, I think my views of both C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud have been affected since seeing that performance.