Cypriot Australian actor, Nicholas Papademetriou, is set to star in Freud’s Last Session at Riverside Theatres in Sydney from Wednesday, March 9 to Saturday, March 12.
The play centres on legendary psychoanalyst Dr Sigmund Freud, played by Papademetriou, and his conversation with the young C.S. Lewis, played by Yannick Lawry.
On the day England enters the Second World War, Freud and Lewis clash passionately about love, sex, the existence of God and the meaning of life, just weeks before Freud was to take his own.
“It’s very entertaining and very funny. It sounds very serious but it’s very amusing,” Papademetriou, who is best known for his work in The Odd Couple and Othello, tells The Greek Herald.
“I mean people will leave [the theatre] very moved because it’s got some very interesting arguments for people who are religious and for other people who are atheist. It really does open a lot of questions that you have to answer yourself at the end of the day.”
To get into character, Papademetriou says he had to undergo ‘quite a transformation,’ including wearing the iconic Freud spectacles and having a prosthetic placed into his mouth.
“I tried to find some footage of him but there’s not much footage of him because he wasn’t filmed very often and he was very frail [from mouth cancer]. I did a lot of research and looked at a lot of pictures,” he explains.
“I also actually observed my mother… I mean she’s much older than Freud was because he was 83 and she’s 96 but because he was so frail, he didn’t move in the same way. So it was interesting watching my mother and how she moved and how she was slightly hunched over.”
It’s this dedication to his craft which will see Papademetriou shine when he hits the stage this Wednesday at 8pm.
- What: Freud’s Last Session.
- When: Wednesday, March 9 – Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 8pm. 1 hour and 15 minutes with no interval.
- Where: Riverside Theatres – Corner of Church and Market St, Parramatta.
- Tickets: Adults $49, Concession $45, 30 & Under $39, 18 & Under $34, Groups 8+ $45, School Groups/ Teachers $23. Discounts available for Riverside Theatres’ Members. Transaction fee $4.60.
Bookings via riversideparramatta.com.au, phone at (02) 8839 3399, or Box Office Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 9:30am – 1pm and one hour prior to performance.
Performance Warning: This performance contains loud noises of an air raid siren which may be triggering to some audience members.
