New play explores what effect Freud could have had on Hitler

A new play by award-winning writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran asks its audience to imagine what would have happened if Adolf Hitler, as a child, had been allowed to follow his doctor’s recommendation and seek psychiatric help from renowned Jewish psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.

“Of course, we’ll never know the answer, but what we do know is that Adolf Hitler was a neurotic, bedwetting, child,” says Laurence, “who did not receive the treatment his doctor said would benefit him.”

The play Dr Freud Will See You Now, Mrs Hitler is being staged at Highgate’s Upstairs At The Gatehouse Theatre, almost 35 years after the creative duo first conceived the idea.

Painstakingly researched, the idea came from Lawrence reading Alan Bullock’s book Hitler:A Study In Tyranny.

“I was fascinated by the first 50 pages that were all about Hitler as a child. Bullock’s bibliography referenced a book, written in German, by Hitler’s childhood friend, Franz Jetzinger. I sought out a copy and it made me think.

“Both books documented how Hitler was a neurotic, bedwetting, child, plagued by nightmares. His mother took him to see their Jewish doctor Eduard Bloch, who referred the young Adolf to a new clinic for children with nervous disorders. That clinic was run by none other than Sigmund Freud.

“But Hitler never went to the clinic, because his abusive father, refused to let him go, possibly (although history cannot confirm this) because he did not want his son revealing the abuse he received from his parent. What would have been the outcome had Hitler’s mother defied her husband and taken her son for treatment by Freud?”

The play poses the question how did Hitler become the monstrous dictator he became in his adulthood?

It asks the questions, but of course cannot answer them. But it lays out the facts and invites the audience to consider what could have happened. Could Hitler’s issues have been resolved by Freud? Would he have achieved his ambition to become an architect studying at Vienna Fine Arts Academy? Would the Holocaust never have happened?

Their research – Lawrence read all 24 volumes of Freud’s work and Cambridge University’s John Forrester, Professor of the History of Science and Freud expert  shared his extensive knowledge and library with them – showed there was enough material for there to be questions that could be asked.

“The fact that we do not know the answers allows us to fill the space,” saysd Maurice. “Because of course there are things we do know. We do know that Hitler became the Fuhrer, and we do know that Freud was the father of psychoanalysis and one of the greatest minds in Europe. Had they met, what would have happened?

“We know that Hitler, in recognition of the kindness and care Dr Bloch showed to his mother when she was dying of breast cancer, declared him ‘a noble Jew’ and allowed the doctor safe passage to the USA. One wonders what his attitude would have been to Freud if he had become his patient.

“We offer the audience a tantalising set of notions.  It is an invitation to consider what is the power of psychotherapy and what could one man have done.”

The play was originally written in a much shorter format as an audio play for radio. The Freud Museum in London asked them to reprise the performance and this led to the pair developing it into a full-length theatre performance. It is 100 minutes long, with six actors playing nine characters, and set in four time periods; Hitler as a child, a student, a soldier and then as the Fuhrer. Although it addresses serious subjects, as one would expect from this writing duo, there are nonetheless comedic elements for Freud was known to love a joke.

Although Marks and Gran are well known as the creators of the hugely popular television show Birds of a Feather they have also written 18 TV shows, 10 plays and four musicals. Despite Birds of a Feather running for 130 episodes, the two works of which they are most proud are their TV series Shine on Harvey Moon -which was their first big break into the world of TV – and the Bafta-winning TV series The New Statesman.

They relish working together and, after all these years in a working partnership, know each other so well that they finish each other sentences and are very much a team. It would not occur to one to write without the other, they said. And they have plenty more work in the pipeline- their next one is a play, an iteration of an earlier audio work they created, about the Moorgate Train crash that happened 50 years ago.

Dr Freud Will See You Now, Mrs Hitler 4 – 28 September at Upstairs at the Gatehouse. upstairsatthegatehouse.com