A new play opening in New York City is exploring Sigmund Freud in a way that hasn’t been before.
“Crazy About You” is a heartfelt yet bizarre comedy about the renowned neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis. Written by William Cane, the play follows the true story of a surgery that went horribly wrong.
“The play is about Sigmund Freud’s stupid mistake when he let his surgeon friend of his, Dr. Wilhelm Fliess, who had some crazy ideas. He let this guy do a nose operation on Emma Eckstein. In the play, the surgeon loves Emma Eckstein. He’s infatuated with her and he almost kills her,” said Cane.
As the play unfolds, Cane says there are comic misunderstandings that ultimately lead Ekstein and Fliess to reconcile. Additionally, throughout the play, Freud examines his relationship with his daughter, Anna, and uncovers and explores the unconscious mind.
“The unconscious appears in this show, and this is the first time to our knowledge that a character of the unconscious appears in a theatrical production,” said Cane. “I’m very excited to share this with the audience that they will be able to see the unconscious force that has been manipulating them all their lives.”
The play features Stephen Carter Carlsen as Sigmund Freud, Chloe Himmelman as Anna Freud, and Michael Shapiro as the Unconscious and Dr. Wilhelm Reich. Jessi Bushman joins the cast of the show as Princess Marie Bonaparte, a French author and psychoanalyst who had close links to Freud. The play also features Samuel Keran as Dr. Wilhelm Fliess, Bella Naso as Emma Eckstein and Royce Johnson as Dr. Sandor Ferenczi.
In the play, Bonaparte introduces Parisian fashions and dances to the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, much to the chagrin of Freud, but also has questions about herself and her mind.
“She is at a point in her life where she’s just had her first two children and she’s looking to understand herself a little bit more in depth. So she’s going to Freud to understand and figure out why she can’t feel pleasure sexually, that was her whole mission to understand that,” said Bushman. “She’s going to him because she thinks that he can cure her of hysteria.”
Freud’s teachings have been examined by scholars for years, but there have been few stories about him on the stage. For Cane, this particular story lends itself to the stage because it humanizes Freud.
“I think really humanizes the picture of Sigmund Freud and you don’t usually get that. You usually think of him as a scientific genius, but he did have this love for his daughter and a very close relationship with Anna, who stayed unmarried throughout her whole life and she stayed with him,” said Cane.
“The human element of it being more of a comedy to dissect this kind of story is definitely the thing that’s gonna draw audiences and because it is a subject everyone kind of knows,” said Bushman. “Everyone knows about Sigmund Freud, everyone’s heard the name before. So looking at it from a different perspective, it’s still telling the story, but maybe in a way that’s more digestible might really draw a lot of people.”
“Crazy About You” has been 25 years in the making, with Cane drawing from his own experiences in being psychoanalyzed as part of the inspiration to eventually write this play. But now that the play is finally coming to life, both Bushman and Cane hope that audiences are able to appreciate how this story is being told.
“I think at least [the audience] hears a little bit of interesting history that makes them go, ‘Wait, there’s no way that actually happened,’ because it’s all true stories, facts, and crazy things that happened in that time,” said Bushman. “I hope it’s touching in some areas, and I hope it’s they walk away feeling like they saw something interesting that they’ll think about for the next few days or they’ll think it was really well done or well written. I think the audience will be able to grasp that, and I think that’s gonna leave them with a smile on their face and feeling good as they take the train home.”
“We bring these historical characters to life, these icons of the psychology world, and that in and of itself will be interesting,” said Cane. “But the message of the show is that there is no free will and that people do not freely decide what they do. It’s all determined, and one of the largest influences on your actions and thoughts is the unconscious.”
“Crazy About You” opens at The Producers Club, located at 358 W. 44th St., on Dec. 5. For more information, visit newluxtheater.com/freud.html.
