HYSTERIA Plays Central Square Theater, Closes 1/30

Two of the world's greatest and most eccentric minds, Sigmund Freud and Salvador Dali, collide in Terry Johnson's Olivier award-winning comedy, HYSTERIA, OR FRAGMENTS OF AN ANALYSIS OF AN OBSESSIONAL NEUROSIS, which will close January 30 at Central Square Theater, produced by The Nora Theatre Company and directed by Associate Director Daniel Gidron. 

Inspired by an actual meeting between Sigmund Freud and Salvador Dali, HYSTERIA is a demonic, farcical romp of hilarious misunderstandings about passions and self-control. Dali arrives at Freud's house for tea, his ulterior motive of painting the patron saint of Surrealism. If Freud, whose artistic preferences are more classical, is convinced all Surrealists are fools, why would he agree to meet with a lunatic? Meanwhile, a young, attractive student has also arrived, seeking the doctor's professional opinion, and she won't take no for an answer.

Terry Johnson was first inspired to write HYSTERIA after reading Jeffrey Masson's book, "The Assault on Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory". He then visited the Freud Museum in London, which was the home of Freud and his family after they escaped Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938. "Freud's son meticulously re-created Freud's Vienna study... and it is a strange and powerful room to walk into," says Johnson. "I walked into the study, and instantly knew where the play would be set; and what its parameters were."

HYSTERIA premiered at London's Royal Court Theatre in 1992 winning the 1994 Olivier Award for Best Comedy. In the US it has been produced by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1999, directed by John Malkovich, and recently at the Wilma Theatre with Alvin Epstein as Sigmund Freud, among others. The New York Times commented that HYSTERIA "keeps with the adventurous new comic tradition pioneered by Tom Stoppard with, among other plays, Travesties."

As a playwright, Terry Johnson's work has been performed all over Great Britain and worldwide. He is the recipient of ten major British Theatre Awards including Olivier Awards for Best Musical Revival in 2009, Best Comedy (twice, 1994 and 1999), and Playwright of the Year 1995. Productions he has directed include: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Entertaining Mr. Sloane, and The Graduate in London's West End. Twice, he worked with Steppenwolf Theatre directing John Malkovitch in The Libertine and Lost Land. His 2008 London revival of La Cage Aux Folles starring Kelsey Grammer and Douglas Hodge transferred to Broadway in 2010. Johnson is the Literary Associate at The Royal Court Theatre where HYSTERIA is featured on a 50th Anniversary mug.

 

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