Florida Studio Theatre to Open FREUD'S LAST SESSION, 3/12

Florida Studio Theatre welcomes back to the stage Jeffrey Plunkett and George Crowley for the production of FREUD'S LAST SESSION by Mark St. Germain, as part of FST's Stage III program. It will have a limited engagement beginning March 12, 2014 in the Keating Theatre. Tickets range from $32 to $34. Tickets are on sale and may be purchased from the FST Box Office in person, by calling (941) 366-9000, or online at www.FloridaStudioTheatre.org.

FREUD'S LAST SESSION has experienced notable success since its first opening in 2009 at the Barrington Stage Company. Having completed a very successful two year run Off Broadway, the production is currently playing in Los Angeles as well as to sellout houses at Chicago's Mercury Theatre, the famed Multiteatro in Buenos Aires and Sweden's Stockholm City Theatre. Additional productions are set to open this season in London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Sydney, Madrid, Copenhagen, Philadelphia, Akron, and Sao Paulo. The Examiner describes the production as "an intellectual sword fight." The Chicago Tribune says it's "rich in its portrait of...characters."

FREUD'S LAST SESSION reunites audiences with the work of Mark St. Germain, who also wrote last season's hit show, BEST OF ENEMIES. This show presents an imagined depiction of a meeting between Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis, set in the final days of Freud's life, on the very day that England entered the Second World War. The play is inspired by Dr. Armand M. Nicholi Jr.'s book The Question of God, which speculates on the meeting between Freud and Lewis that history can neither confirm nor deny. St. Germain's play takes the scenario one step farther, bringing the imagined meeting to life in exquisite, thought-provoking detail. In a meeting of the minds unlike any other, the intellectual pair faces off over the existence of God and a variety of other topics.

This show brings back two FST veteran, powerhouse performers: George Crowley playing the role of Sigmund Freud, and Jeffrey Plunkett, playing the role of C.S. Lewis. Crowley describes his experience with FST stating, "Every time I've come down here since, it's like returning to an artistic home that's safe, precisely because the audiences are always up for the challenge. I played the father in that sure-fire play PROOF, good-guy Gabe in DINNER WITH FRIENDS, the fiery painter in TEN UNKNOWNS and, most recently, one of the two sad-sack-rabbis in TWO JEWS WALK INTO A WAR. Every time, the plays, while entertaining, have a daring and a vigor to make all of us, artists and audience, step up to a new challenge. Here I am, again, with Sigmund Freud, directed for my third time by the passionate Kate Alexander, and I get to embody a man whose intelligence will not allow him to suffer fools. Rigor and fire and a willingness to grapple with the sophistry of religion are hallmarks of this play. It's another challenge. I cannot wait to hear how the audience responds to this one.

Audiences will remember Plunkett for his riveting performances in FST shows like RACE and THE COLUMNIST. Plunkett describes his return for this compelling play stating, "My parents still own the home I grew up in. Each return for me, to the familiar, to the sights and sounds and smells of that particular place, full of memories of all stripes, is very much akin to stepping off the plane in Sarasota for me. It has been my good fortune to do so for a number of years now. The comfort of the embrace of co-workers, of these marvelous friends as we head into another project together, feels like homecoming. That comfort now extends to the greater community where I've made the kind of long-lasting relationships that survive absence and make my heart fonder."

This is a play that asks questions and gets the audience involved in the psychology of human beings and our own universal truths. With dynamic actors, Plunkett and Crowley, sharing the stage for the first time, the Keating Theatre will come alive once again with this fictional, yet so relevant, conversation between two of history's most legendary figures.

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