Freud the Musical – Vault Festival

Natasha Sutton Williams in Freud the Musical. Picture: Alicia Clarke

Freud the Musical continues at the Vault Festival, London.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

Natasha Sutton Williams oozes talent. As Sigmund Freud, in this one-woman show, directed by Dominic McHale, she squirms, growls, snarls, leers, pretends to be a cat, plays the role of several highly neurotic patients, puppets a tiny child with a penis obsession – among other things.

At the same time this show’s 13 original songs (nice range of styles) give us Williams singing in a rather beautiful mezzo, dropping an octave for a gravelly base, squeaking like a five year old and voicing each of her characters differently.

She also has an admirable ability for pitching start notes with accuracy before the onstage pianist begins the accompaniment. It’s a startling, edgy and impressive performance.

Freud’s 1915 lecture changed the thinking world’s attitude to human behaviour and the thrust of this 55-minute musical monologue – premiered three years ago on the centennial anniversary – is that Freud is dealing with his own demons as he prepares for the lecture.

We see him (Williams looks the part in mannish three-piece suit and hair pinned down) smoking a cigar and using it graphically and hilariously to demonstrate various phallic connections.

Freud was a cocaine addict and Williams has him repeatedly dipping his face in white powder and then raising a triumphant, gloriously unrepentant face to the audience – before the next mood change.

Freud the Musical is very funny because it’s outrageous, but probably only a notch away from reality – “Physician, heal thyself”. The fresh use of incongruously modern language heightens the comedy too.

Susan Elkin