Roman Freud Interview by Jen Bush
The esteemed American Theatre of Actors has been presenting diverse cutting-edge theatre as well as the good old classics for nearly 50 years. It is their mission to support new artists. From September 21st-30th they will present the highly anticipated world premiere of An Artist in Purgatory:Baudelaire’s Passion. This piece brings an international cast including artists from Ukraine to this landmarked theatre. This exciting new work has choreography, an original score and even original artwork. Though this play is an international extravaganza about a French poet that will be performed in Russian, you don’t have to be bilingual. The performance will be presented with supertitles.
An Artist in Purgatory: Baudelaire’s Passion is a heavenly and devilishly good piece about 19th-century French poet Charles Baudelaire. The poor wordsmith is stuck in purgatory while Saint Peter and Satan duke it out for his soul. Will he be floating on a cloud or fanning the flames of Hades? You’ll have to see the show to find out! For now, meet Roman Freud who plays Saint Peter in the show. He spent some time chatting with us about this piece and his journey as an artist.
Roman Freud is a graduate of The Schukin Theater School in Moscow. He directed and performed in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Claudius), Twelfth Night (Orsino), Salinger’s Franny (Lane), and other plays. Roman worked at the Moscow Jewish Chamber Musical Theater as a musical actor and throughout his six years there starred in all of the company’s productions. Tango of Life, Lomir Ale Ineynem and Fiddler on the Roof among them. As a company member, Mr. Freud toured and performed in New York Melbourne, Milan, Rome, Budapest and dozens of cities in the former Soviet Union. Mr. Freud moved to the United States in 1991. His New York stage credits include Russian and English versions of Enemy, Love story by I.B. Singer/Herman Broder (Steps Theater), Unhappy Happiness by Chekov’s Lady with a dog/Gurov (Steps Theater), No Day, No Month, No Year by Gogol’s Dairy of a Madman/Medgy (Steps Theater), Vasily and Federico/multiple parts (Steps Theater). Three Sisters/Vershinin (Russian Arts Theater and Studio), Devil’s come to Moscow by Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita/Woland (Russian Arts Theater and Studio), Lady with a lapdog and other stories by A. Chekov/multiple characters (Russian Arts Theater and Studio), Passions by Mikhail/Ivan Vasilievich (Steps Theater). Raise and fall of Macondo/Jose Arcadio Buendia (Russian Arts Theater and Studio), Overcoat by N. Gogol/Petrovich and other characters (Russian Arts Theater and Studio), Gamblers by N. Gogol/Shvokhnev (Russian Arts Theater and Studio)
Mr. Freud has been writing film and theatrical scripts in English and Russian since 2004. His Theater play (co-authored with Slava Stepnov) Ask Joseph based on life and art of poet, Nobel Prize laureate Joseph Brodsky, was staged in Steps Theater in 2013. Roman Freud played a main character (Joseph).
The most recent dramatic work of Mr. Freud is The Singing Windmills – a play about life and art of the great Russian-Jewish actor/director Solomon Mikhoels, which have been staged by New York theatre PM in 2022 and successfully toured across East/West of the US in 2023.
Two of his short movie scripts were filmed – Encounter (2009) and Déjà vu (2010) and nominated on New York Independent film festival.
When creating a character, Mr. Freud does not distinguish between fantasy and reality. “To me fictional characters (St. Peter in this case) are as real as regular humans but placed in unusual circumstances.”
This work presents an extra challenge because it’s a fantasy about a real person with a powerful message performed in another language with supertitles for the audience. Mr. Freud is a consummate professional who does not find this challenging at all. “Not really, not because of all this international connotation. Real poetry and real-life conflicts are international and universal. Hope I will be able to reveal those in my stage work.”
There is a strong fascination with heaven and hell. The TV show Good Omens just started season two and Lucifer was a wildly popular Netflix show. We wanted to get Mr. Freud’s take on this phenomenon. “We are fascinated with the unknown. Also, people are never completely good or bad. Our actions are always subject to conscience. I believe heaven and hell are like a scale of our “goodness”, like pride and guilt. Those are always around whatever you do.”
Mr. Freud has no shortage of artistic endeavors to keep him busy for the foreseeable future. Till then, be a saint and see him in the role of Saint Peter at the American Theatre of Actors. “I Hope to have this show on the road to show to people in other places. Me personally – I have many projects in the pipeline – some of them of my own writing, others where I act.”
An Artist in Purgatory:Baudelaire’s Passion
The John Cullum Theatre at The American Theatre of Actors
314 W. 54th Street
9/21-9/30
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