London Classic Theatre Announces New Tour of Terry Johnson's Award-Winning HYSTERIA

Following the successful tour of Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party in 2016, today London Classic Theatre Artistic Director Michael Cabot announces a new production of Terry Johnson's Hysteria for spring 2017. Cabot directs John Dorney (Salvador Dali), Ged McKenna (Sigmund Freud), Summer Strallen (Jessica) and Moray Treadwell (Dr Abraham Yahuda). The production tours to 23 venues around the UK this spring, opening at Malvern Festival Theatre on 1 February and finishing at Mercury Theatre Colchester on 20 May.

1938. Hampstead, London.

Sigmund Freud has fled Nazi-occupied Austria and settled in leafy Swiss Cottage. The ageing Freud intends to spend his last days in peaceful contemplation but, when Salvador Dali pays a visit and discovers a naked woman in the closet, eye-popping mayhem ensues.

Winner of the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy in 1994, Terry Johnson's hilarious farce explores the fallout when two of the twentieth century's most brilliant and original minds collide.

Terry Johnson is one of the UK's most celebrated contemporary playwrights. His most notable successes include Dead Funny, Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick, The Graduate, Insignificance and Mrs Henderson Presents.

John Dorney plays Salvador Dali. His work for the company includes Absent Friends, The Caretaker and Humble Boy. Other recent theatre credits include Flight, Peter Pan (National Theatre), Something Beginning With... (Orange Tree Theatre), At the Back and Out of Focus (Soho Theatre), The Revenger's Tragedy, The Stranger (Southwark Playhouse) and Better Watch Out (Hampstead Theatre). Dorney is also known for his role in My First Planet for Radio 4.

Ged McKenna plays Sigmund Freud. McKenna previously worked with the company on The Birthday Party. Other theatre credits include Brassed Off, Kes and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Oldham Coliseum), A Skull in Connemara (Nottingham Playhouse), Inherit The Wind, Toad of Toad Hall, Big Maggie, Second From Last in The Sack Race, Translations, Cleo Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick (all New Vic Theatre), Faith Healer (Library Theatre, Manchester), To Kill a Mockingbird, Wuthering Heights (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Iron (Traverse Theatre and Royal Court Theatre) and Macbeth (Cheek by Jowl). McKenna also wrote and performed in The Farmer's Bride (UK tour). Film work includes Awaydays.

Summer Strallen plays Jessica. Strallen has been nominated for 4 Olivier Awards for performances in Top Hat (Aldwych Theatre & UK tour), Love Never Dies (Adelphi Theatre), The Drowsy Chaperone (Novello Theatre) and The Boyfriend (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre). Other theatre credits include Ultimate Broadway (Shanghai Culture Square Theatre), A Damsel in Distress (Chichester Festival Theatre), Life Of The Party (Menier Chocolate Factory), The Sound of Music, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (London Palladium), Dick Whittington (Barbican Theatre), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre), Guys and Dolls (Piccadilly Theatre), Cats (New London Theatre & UK tour), Fosse (European Tour) and Scrooge (Dominion Theatre). Work for television includes The Land Girls and Hollyoaks.

Moray Treadwell plays Dr Abraham Yahuda. His theatre credits include The Railway Children (King's Cross Theatre), The Beatles LOVE (Cirque du Soleil, Las Vegas), The Importance of Being Earnest (Vienna's English Theatre), The Ruling Class (Frankfurt's English Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds), Wuthering Heights, Man and Superman, Absurd Person Singular and Amadeus (Pitlochry Festival Theatre) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Palladium). Work for television includes My Family and Planespotting.

Michael Cabot is the founder and Artistic Director of London Classic Theatre. He has directed all thirty-five LCT productions since their debut in 1993 including The Birthday Party, Waiting for Godot, Absent Friends, Entertaining Mr Sloane, Betrayal, The Importance of Being Earnest, Equus, Ghosts, After Miss Julie and The Caretaker. He has overseen the company's transition from one of the success stories of the London Fringe in the late nineties to its current position as one of the UK's leading touring companies. As a director, his other work includes Pera Palas, Marat/Sade (Arcola Theatre), The Power of Love (Southwark Playhouse), Tattoo (New Grove), and most recently two Scotsman Fringe First winning plays by Henry Naylor, Angel (Gilded Balloon 2016) and The Collector (UK tour 2016).

James Perkins joins London Classic Theatre for the first time as set and costume designer. His theatre credits include: Sweet Charity and Little Shop of Horrors (Royal Exchange, Manchester), Skylight (Clwyd Theatr Cymru), Pilgrims (Hightide, Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Yard Theatre), The Last Five Years (New Wolsey Theatre), German Skerries, Jess and Joe (The Orange Tree Theatre), The Gathered Leaves (Park Theatre), Breeders (St James Theatre), Shiver, Lost In Yonkers (Watford Palace Theatre), Ciphers (Bush Theatre/Out Of Joint), 1001 Nights (Unicorn Theatre/Transport Theatre), Liar Liar (Unicorn Theatre), Girl in the Yellow Dress (Salisbury Playhouse), Microcosm (Soho Theatre), Dances of Death (Gate Theatre), The Fantasist's Waltz (York Theatre Royal), Stockwell (Tricycle Theatre), Carthage, Foxfinder, The Bofors Gun, Trying (Finborough Theatre) and The Marriage of Figaro (Wilton's Music Hall).

Andy Grange collaborates with Michael Cabot and London Classic Theatre for the seventh time. Previous LCT productions include: The Birthday Party, Waiting for Godot, Absent Friends and Entertaining Mr Sloane. Other recent theatre includes Hansel & Gretel (Hertford Theatre), S&S Gala Awards (Mercury Musicals, St James Theatre), Sunshine on Leith, Beauty & The Beast, Welcome To Thebes, Just So, Aladdin, Electra (The MTA, London), Pride & Prejudice, Romeo & Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Arabian Nights, Richard III, The Merchant of Venice, The Canterbury Tales, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet (Queen Mary 2, Royal Court Theatre), And In The End (Jermyn Street Theatre) and Crimes in Hot Countries, Man & Superman, Woyzeck, The Shape of Things, Motortown, Titus Andronicus (RADA).

London Classic Theatre

In April 2000, London Classic Theatre was launched as a touring theatre company with David Mamet's Oleanna. This inaugural tour lost a small fortune but doors had opened and, crucially, the work was being seen. Sixteen years and thirty-five tours later, London Classic Theatre is now a successful, established part of the commercial UK touring theatre scene. The company has never received any funding or sponsorship for its work. As Artistic Director, Michael Cabot has programmed a repertoire of classic and modern classic plays, a mixture of the challenging and the commercial, big titles and less well-known, including two UK premières - Hugh Leonard's Love in the Title and Joanna Murray-Smith's Nightfall. As venues and audiences have become more familiar with the work, he has been able to push the boundaries of what LCT offers, both in ambition, scale and complexity.

www.londonclassictheatre.co.uk

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Image credit: Owain Emanuel

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