Five O’Clock

The WorkShop Theater Company presents Five O’Clock, a new play by Richard Brockman, directed by Mirra Bank.

On March 9th, 1938, the German army crossed into Austria to reclaim
Hitler’s native land for the Reich. In Vienna, the Gestapo entered Berggasse 19, home of Dr. Sigmund Freud. They left with only one person – Freud’s daughter, Anna. Held for many hours alone in an interrogation room, Anna engaged with the Gestapo in an intimate, epic struggle. How she
fared determined, not just her own fate, but the fate of her father – a key
‘enemy of the Reich’ – and of her entire family. 5 O’Clock – the hour of Anna’s psychoanalytic appointments with her father years before the Anschluss (the annexation of Austria by Germany) – follows the transformation of a brilliant, dutiful daughter as she defies the authority of a domineering father, and the terrors of a totalitarian state, to become her true self – and a free woman. No record exists of exactly what happened during Anna and Freud’s analytic sessions, nor during Anna’s interrogation, but Brockman and director Mirra Bank use archival film and video projections from the period, passages from Freud’s writing, Nazi-era speeches and propaganda, as well as figures from both Freud’s and Anna’s life to evoke the hidden story.

Additional performance: Sunday, October 12th at 7pm

October 15 is a special benefit performance with ticket price $35.

Appropriate for teenagers.