Hysteria (play)

Hysteria: Or Fragments of an Analysis of an Obsessional Neurosis
Written by	Terry Johnson
Date premiered	1 August 1993
Place premiered	Royal Court Theatre London
Original language	English
Subject	Two of the world's greatest and most eccentric minds collide when Sigmund Freud and Salvador Dalí meet
Genre	Comedy

Hysteria: Or Fragments of an Analysis of an Obsessional Neurosis is a two-hour comedy play, by British dramatist Terry Johnson, fictionalising a real-life 1938 meeting between Salvador Dalí and Sigmund Freud a year before the latter's death. It is named after the Freudian psychological term "hysteria".

Freud and Dali meet for tea at Freud's house in Hampstead one summer's afternoon in 1938. The play combines that meeting with the arrival of the mysterious Jessica, who brings serious charges against Freud relating to his treatment of her mother and his theory of presexual shock. In the last months of his illness, the exhausted Freud, trying to put his affairs in order, soon finds himself up to his neck explaining both his life's work and the female undergarments in his garden.

The play's London premiere, on 1 August 1993 at the Royal Court Theatre, was directed by Phyllida Lloyd, with Henry Goodman as Freud, Tim Potter as Dali, Phoebe Nicholls as Jessica and David de Keyser as Yahuda.Beryl Bainbridge wrote in her 2005 book Front Row: Evenings at the Theatre: "there's an awful lot going on in this stunning play, and the actors - Henry Goodman, Phoebe Nicholls, David de Keyser and Tim Potter - all give massively intelligent performances".

This production was revived in 1995, as part of the 'Royal Court Classics' season at the Duke of York's Theatre, with Aisling O'Sullivan as Jessica and Fred Pearson as Yahuda.The Sunday Times said of the production: "This is an utterly hilarious and brilliant show and I do mean brilliant. It sparkles, it shines, and it lights up the mind".

...
Wikipedia