Dr Freud Will See You Now, Mrs Hitler, a new dark comedy from BAFTA award-winning writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, premieres at Upstairs at the Gatehouse on Thursday 4th September and runs to 28th September 2025.
Set in late-19th-century Vienna, the production takes inspiration from a recommendation given by Hitler’s childhood doctor that he should visit a children’s psychiatric clinic opened by the world-renowned psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. In reality, Adolf’s father refused to take him for treatment. This poignant new work explores whether the 20th century’s greatest psychoanalyst could have saved humanity from the era’s greatest psychopath.
The show moves from biting dry humour to creeping dread, leaving the audience to consider what therapy can and cannot achieve in the face of monstrous potential. Written by the Award-winning duo behind Birds of a Feather and Goodnight Sweetheart, a 60-minute version of the play was originally broadcast in 2007 as part of BBC Radio 4’s The Saturday Play. This production is the first time the show will be fully realised on stage. Produced by Chromolume, the in-house company at Upstairs at the Gatehouse, it will be directed by the Gatehouse Artistic Director, Isaac Bernier-Doyle (Road Show, Upstairs at the Gatehouse; BloodGold and Oil, Upstairs at the Gatehouse/ Riverside Studios; You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown Upstairs at the Gatehouse /China Tour. Dr Freud Will See You Now, Mrs Hitler is a deeply researched piece, with strong connections to the Freud Museum in Hampstead – the location where the Freud family lived after escaping Vienna.
Writer Laurence Marks said, “Our play was a result of many years of studious reading, when it suddenly occurred to us that it was possible that two of the greatest German-speaking figures of the 20th century could have met one another. Our curiosity was such as to imagine what might have happened had they done so…and when we came to that conclusion, we thought a stage play was brewing.
This is a work of the imagination, of course, but the line in the play, said by Sigmund Freud, ‘It’s fascinating how, as modern life becomes more complex, the masses look to their leaders for ever more simple solutions’, really resonated with what is happening over in the United States and Russia, under the Presidency of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. This is very much a play for today. We must never forget, at this very moment in history, the impact Freud and Hitler had on our lives, even if they are on the horizon of our memories. Would today’s world have been a vastly different place had the two men really met?”
Dr Freud Will See You Now, Mrs Hitler is playing at Upstairs at the Gatehouse from Thursday 4th September, 2025. Ticket Information.
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