Hysteria

Terry Johnson’s hilarious farce explores the meeting of two of the twentieth century’s most brilliant and original minds: Salvador Dalí and Sigmund Freud.

1938. Hampstead, London. Sigmund Freud has fled Nazi-occupied Austria and settled in leafy Swiss Cottage. At eighty-two-years-old, he aims to spend his final days in peace. However, when Salvador Dalí turns up to discover a less-than-fully dressed woman in the closet, peace becomes somewhat elusive . . . An acknowledged modern classic, Terry Johnson’s hilarious farce explores the fall-out when two of the twentieth century’s most brilliant and original minds collide. It touches on many themes including Nazi Germany, the Surrealist movement, Judaism, Freud’s theories of the unconscious mind, family relationships, life and death, and love and loss. Johnson's celebrated play raises intriguing questions about Freud’s radical revision of his theories of hysteria.