Freuds Last Session

Freud's last session is written by Mark St. Germain. The Session is a fictitious session between Sigmund  Freud and CS Lewis.  The play was voted Best off Boardway in 2011. It is a well written dialogue play interweaving fact and fiction.  The session is a debate between Freud and Lewis, it's main topic is on the subject of religion and the existence of God, though other subjects such as sexuality are briefly discussed. The play contains a lot of humour and historical references from the period.
Freud is dying of cancer, the session takes place two weeks before he takes his own life and the day Second World War is announced. Lewis has been invited by Freud as he is intrigued by his theories and though he is clearly in much pain, managing to conduct a lively debate. There is good use of live radio recordings from the time and the set  and costumes are full of character from the period.
Henry Szeps plays Freud and  Douglas Hansell plays Lewis. As the play revolves around the two characters and takes place as one continue scene; the whole play is reliant on the direction and acting of these two individuals.  Sadly, Szeps though one of Australia's greats did seem to struggle with his lines and stage direction, whether this was first night nerves is it hard to say. Because of this it did lack some pace and many audience members did start to fidget towards the end. Hansell did well to keep the play moving and considering the number of lines both actors had to learn, you have to admire them for that.
Freud's Last Session is playing at the Theatre Royal, Sydney until 1 September.

Jersey Boys

The Jersey Boys have hit Sydney with a bang or should I say song!
The Jersey Boys is the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. If you don't know who they are don't worry you soon will. The Four Seasons started out in the 50's and had hits spanning 5 decades. They wrote all their own songs with many great hits including - Sherry, Big Girls Don't Cry, Oh What a Night, Walk like a Man, Bye Bye Baby (Baby Goodbye), Can't Take My Eyes Off You and Working My Way Back To You.
Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons came from New Jersey, they had a tough upbringing and many encounters with the wrong side of the law. However, music took over and led them to more success than they could ever have imagined. They sold over 175 million records before they reached thirty!
The show itself has won the Tony Award for Best Musical, 7 Green Room Awards, a Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album, and winner of the Olivier Award for Best Musical.
Yes, go and see it. The staging is wonderfully simple but very effective with historical footage in parts. The movement of the scenes and drum kits is amazing. But, it is the music that makes it, the way you can see how the band developed and the mature. But probably the one thing that impressed me the most was the timing. It must have taken several hours of rehearsals to get the four guys in perfect sync, but it was worth it as it makes it one flawless performance.