From Johnny Cash to Bob Dylan, Andrew Hendry is set to play another iconic figure, C.S Lewis, in theatre production 'Freud's Last Session'.
Andrew Hendry does not feel the pressure of playing such iconic roles, in fact, he finds it quite thrilling. “When they are historical [characters], I think the best thing to do is try and creep under the skin.
“There's a lot of material available obviously, so you just get to read a lot of autobiographical material. You get to have a look around and see what people have done before and reject ideas or get excited by ideas they present. Once you find something in that, you just let it go completely and do your own thing. And of course when it's not a real figure, you can just go to town.”
William Zappa as Sigmund Freud and Andrew Henry as C.S. Lewis“I love the idea of [the character] being a young C.S Lewis as well, which it is quite deliberately done. It's before ‘Narnia’, it's before he became the C.S Lewis that we now look back on. It's a man that is acknowledged as being brilliant, but is not yet fully formed.”
The storyline follows a fictitious meet between a young C.S Lewis and Sigmund Freud –who is on the verge of death. “Freud's agenda for meeting [with C.S Lewis] is to discuss topics such as the meaning of life, sex, religion, all those things. Lewis is Anglican at this point and Freud being a thoughtful man describes God as being insidious.
“It takes us through an hour and a half of just these two men having a verbal spar about all these different topics. It is a wonderful play for the mind. To add extra weight, it has been set on the eve of World War II, so we get the looming threat of bombs being dropped throughout the play.”Andrew Hendry studied at the Stepmore Theatre Company in Chicago, and believes training and study is necessary in furthering the career of an actor. “[Stepmore] is one of the most exciting and dynamic theatre companies in the world. “They've been around for 33 years and they have a program that I was desperate to do. That was the icing on the cake that meant I could come back in 2011 and feel really comfortable with what I was doing. Not that you stop learning of course.”
Having lived in America, Andrew has noticed there is a significant difference in the support of the arts, particularly theatre, in America than there is within Australia. “I was in Chicago, and there was something like 440 theatres in the city. Theatre is really a blood sport, in that, if a show is getting an extraordinary review, people will line up at 5:30[am] to get tickets, they will beg, borrow and steal to try and get into that show. “We in Australia are absolutely world class in what we do. Even though having had the experience of seeing lots of productions overseas, when we get the harmony right in Australia with the good actors, good directors, and good scripts; what we do is absolutely world class.
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“But within our culture, there is not a consistent craving for theatre. In terms of our domestic industry, it's certainly doesn't feel like it's a priority at that level for people to invest.”
‘Freud’s Last Session’ plays at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre from the 26th November until the 7th December.
