Darlinghurst Theatre Company to Present HYSTERIA

Terry Johnson's brilliant comedy and farce takes its inspiration from history, when in 1938 the surrealist painter Salvador Dalí paid a visit to Sigmund Freud who had recently escaped Nazi Europe and settled in London.

Dalí was a fan of Freud, to the point of obsession and in his memoirs Dalí wrote: In the evening I held long and exhaustive imaginary conversations with Freud; he even came home with me once and stayed all night clinging to the curtains of my room in the Hotel Sacher (The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí:1942).

Little is known of their actual meeting, however Dalí sketched Freud whilst they met and he later wrote: Freud's cranium is a snail! His brain is the form of a spiral - to be extracted with a needle! This discovery strongly influenced the portrait drawing which I later made from life, a year before his death (The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí: 1942).

Terry Johnson's Hysteria imagines the fallout when two of the twentieth century's most brilliant and original minds collide. Hysteria also imagines that Freud received another surprise and unwanted guest who rattles and disturbs the founder of psychoanalysis and holds him accountable to a terrible truth.

Darlinghurst Theatre Company produces and presents the Sydney Premiere of Hysteria.

About the playwright, Terry Johnson

Terry Johnson is a multi-award winning playwright and winner of two Olivier Awards for Best Comedy in 1994 and 1999, a Critics Circle award for Best New Play in 1995, a Time Out Best Play Award in 1995 and two Writers Guild Best Play awards in 1995 and 1996. He is a former Literary Associate at The Royal Court Theatre where he has had five of his own plays produced; Insignificance, Cries From The Mammal House, Hysteria, Hitchcock Blonde and Piano/Forte.

SEASON

Previews: 31 March - 2 April

Season: 5 April - 30 April

PERFORMANCE TIMES

Tues - Sat: 7.30pm

Sun: 5pm

Sat matinees: 22 & 29 April at 3pm

Duration: Approx 2 hours (with interval)

TICKETS AND INFORMATION

www.darlinghursttheatre.com / 02 8356 9987

TICKET PRICES

Standard $54, Concession $44, Groups (8+) $44, Industry* $38,

Under 30* $38, Previews $3 *Available Tue, Wed & Thu Only

Q&A'S WITH CAST AND DIRECTOR, SUSANNA DOWLING

9 & 23 March after 5pm show

CAST

Miranda Daughtry (Jessica)

Michael McStay (Salvador Dalí)

Wendy Strehlow (Abraham Yahuda)

Jo Turner (Sigmund Freud)

CREATIVES

Director: Susanna Dowling

Production Designer: Anna Gardiner

Lighting Designer: Daniel Barber

Sound Designer: Katelyn Shaw

Stage Manager: Amy Morcom

Film Concept: Vitor Queiroz

Cinematographers: Julian Tynan and James Fraser

Hair and Makeup Artist: Martelle Hunt

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