FREUD’S LAST SESSION Celebrates 750th Performance

FREUD'S LAST SESSION, the runaway hit play by Mark St. Germain, celebrated its 750th New York performance yesterday, June 30th at New World Stages (240 West 50th Street). FREUD'S LAST SESSION is the winner of the 2011 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Play. In celebration of the official end of the school year, the show's producers recently released an additional block of $20 student tickets for all performances this summer.

The Off-Broadway premiere engagement of FREUD'S LAST SESSION opened on July 22, 2010 to rave reviews and immediately became a sellout sensation. FREUD'S LAST SESSION stars Mark H. Dold as C. S. Lewis and Martin Rayner as Sigmund Freud, under the direction of Tyler Marchant. The show is also currently playing to sellout houses at Chicago's Mercury Theatre as well as at the famed Multiteatro in Buenos Aires. Additional productions are set to open into 2013 in major markets across the nation and around the world.

The runaway hit play, currently heading into its third smash year, has hosted an unusually large number of celebrity attendees, including such luminaries as Woody Allen, Alec Baldwin, Barbara Walters, Kenneth Branagh, Richard Gere, John Cleese, Frank Oz, Marcia Gay Harden, Neil Simon, Peter Bogdanovich, T.R. Knight, Patricia Heaton, Jerry Stiller, Christiane Amanpour, Andy Rooney, Olympia Dukakis, Dick Cavett, Victoria Jackson, Scott Adsit, Dan Lauria, Cornel West, Roger Goodell, Peter Shaffer, John Kander, Celeste Holm, Dr. Ruth (8 times!), Frances Sternhagen, Tina Louise, Louis Zorich, and Warner Wolf.

Under the direction of Tyler Marchant, FREUD'S LAST SESSION 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.

Playwright Mark St. Germain has written the plays Camping with Henry and Tom (Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards); Dr. Ruth, All the Way; The Best of Enemies; Out of Gas on Lover's Leap; and Forgiving Typhoid Mary. With Randy Courts, he has written the musicals The Gifts of the Magi, Johnny Pye and the Foolkiller and Jack's Holiday. TV credits include Writer and Creative Consultant for The Cosby Show. Mark co-wrote the screenplay for the acclaimed film Duma, and he directed and co-produced the documentary My Dog: An Unconditional Love Story featuring Richard Gere, Glenn Close and Edward Albee, among many others.

Mark H. Dold appeared on Broadway in Absurd Person Singular, and his Off-Broadway credits include Shockheaded Peter, Comic Potential, Race, The Winter's Tale, Othello, The Seagull, Romeo and Juliet, Spread Eagle, and Timon of Athens. Regionally, Mark has appeared at the Mark Taper Forum, Old Globe (San Diego Critics Circle Award), Chicago Shakespeare, Shakespeare DC, Long Wharf (Connecticut Critics Circle Award), Trinity Rep, and Yale Rep.

Martin Rayner's Broadway credits include The Invention of Love and Sixteen Wounded. His Off-Broadway appearances include Travels with My Aunt, Gates of Gold, Henry V, and Kit Marlowe. Martin's favorite regional roles were at Yale Rep: Underground and You Never Can Tell; McCarter: Loot; American Repertory Theater: King Lear and When We Dead Awaken; Wilma: The Invention of Love and The Magic Fire. TV credits include Dr. Chaotica on Star Trek: Voyager, Frasier and Benjamin Franklin.

FREUD'S LAST SESSION is produced Off-Broadway by Carolyn Rossi Copeland, Robert Stillman and Jack Thomas. The performance schedule is Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 8pm; with matinees Wednesday at 2:30pm, Saturday at 2pm and Sunday at 3pm. Running time is 82 minutes with no intermission. Tickets are $65 and are available at Telecharge.com 212-239-6200 or through www.FreudsLastSession.com. A limited number of $20 (+ $1.50 service fee) Student Rush tickets (cash only, with valid student ID) are available at the box office day of performance.