Performing Arts

Freud’s Last Session Comes to Black Mountain

Freud’s Last Session Comes to Black Mountain

Matt Lutz as C.S. Lewis (left) and Kelley Hinman as Freud (right). Photo courtesy of Black Mountain Center for the Arts

By Jessica Klarp

Front Porch Theatre at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts is happy to announce the first play of its fifth season, Freud’s Last Session, written by Mark St. Germain and produced by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service. Tickets are on sale now for shows at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, October 6–7 and 13–14. Matinees will be held at 2 p.m. on Sundays, October 8 and 15.

Freud’s Last Session centers on legendary psychoanalyst Dr. Sigmund Freud who invites the young Oxford scholar C. S. Lewis to his home in London. On the day England enters World War II, Freud and Lewis clash about love, sex, the existence of God and the meaning of life. Freud’s Last Session is a deeply touching play filled with humor that explores the minds, hearts and souls of two brilliant men addressing the greatest questions of all time.

Callan White directs the 75-minute piece. White, who has directed numerous professional and college productions across Western North Carolina, is also a veteran performer, acting in television and film, and on stage for more than 20 years with leading roles at NC Stage, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the Long Wharf Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The National Theatre Company and Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. She has had guest-starring roles on Star Trek, Crossing Jordan, The Practice, Chicago Hope, JAG, and L.A. Law. Audiences may also remember her as Anne Alden on ABC’s Loving for many years.

Matt Lutz, Front Porch Theatre’s new artistic director, not only selected the play to kick off its fifth season, but will also play Lewis. “I was introduced to Freud’s Last Session by a friend of mine who called it a ‘nugget of a show,’” says Lutz. “As artistic director of the Front Porch Theatre it thrills me to be able to bring this ‘nugget’ to WNC. To be able to act in it as well is an incredible cherry on top.”

A WNC native, Lutz has returned to the mountains after 14 years in Los Angeles and New York City. He has a rich résumé that includes the Broadway stage (Bonnie & Clyde – original cast and recording), film (A Walk to Remember, Bringing Down the House) and television (McBride, Boston Public, Las Vegas, 7th Heaven and Dawson’s Creek).

Freud is played by award-winning actor Kelley Hinman who studied with Sanford Meisner at Neighborhood Playhouse in NYC and was a member of the acclaimed Actors Co-op in Hollywood, appearing in numerous productions. He received a Drama-Logue Award for his performance as Dr. Wilson in Terra Nova by Ted Tally. Although he moved his family to Asheville in 2007, he continues to work in theater, film and television. The group plans to discuss the work and its concepts after performances, perhaps with experts on hand to facilitate the conversation.

Black Mountain Center for the Arts is located at 225 West State Street in Black Mountain. Tickets to Freud’s Last Session are $20 and can be purchased by calling 828-669-0930 or by visiting blackmountainarts.org.

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