Hysteria (play)

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.

[1] The play's London premiere, on 1 August 1993 at the Royal Court Theatre,[2] was directed by Phyllida Lloyd, with Henry Goodman as Freud, Tim Potter as Dali, Phoebe Nicholls as Jessica and David de Keyser as Yahuda.

[3] 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".

[8] In the 2012 production at the Theatre Royal, Bath (directed by the author), Antony Sher appeared as Freud, Will Keen as Dalí, Indira Varma as Jessica, and David Horovitch as Yahuda.

[9] Charles Spencer, writing in The Daily Telegraph, said: "Twenty years on it strikes me as a modern classic... Johnson directs his own wildly imaginative but also scrupulously researched play with panache, achieving a farcical comic momentum that somehow finds space for moments of both deep emotion and intellectual rigour...the cast is outstanding.