Drama On One: The Silent Passenger by Ronan Brady tells the story of Sigmund Freud's escape from the Nazis on June 4th, 1938 - Barry Mc Govern plays Freud and Stephen Brennan is Carl Jung.
Listen to The Silent Passenger above, while Ronan Brady introduces the play below.
An elderly cancer victim resigns himself to death in the city he loves. He foresees no afterlife other than the maintenance of his reputation among the living, after his passing.
Then the most noxious conspiracy of the 20th century comes knocking at his door. He's forced to confront the fact that, if he doesn’t flee, his nearest and dearest will die.
He’s been living a kind of funeral with heroic stoicism. But now that dignified decline must be rushed. He and his family must take to the rails. In doing so, he’s forced to reconsider his entire life.
If this story concerned an ordinary Jewish doctor, known only to his patients, I think it would still be worth telling. But Sigmund Freud helped mould the 20th century’s view of itself, with ideas that still matter today. He took our conscience with him on that train.
I’m especially proud to hear Irish accents in these roles because our country’s conscience with regard to anti-Semitism is not clear.
It seems to me that we’re very silent about the Limerick Pogrom in 1904. I’m also old enough to remember Labour mayor of Limerick Stevie Coughlan’s remarks 60-odd years later, attempting to justify that atrocity. Between 1933 and 1939, our country was represented in Germany by Charles Bewley – a vicious anti-Semite.
I think we have a case to answer and I also think the best way of doing that is to consider the real stories of real people. Slogans, commandments and even laws are less powerful than a shared sense of humanity, which I hope is present in The Silent Passenger.
