The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 25

Reviews A farce about Freud? Terry Johnson's Hysteria marries theatrical audacity to real insight- 'a great achievement' Farce proves the surreal thing Michael Billington ERRY JOHNSON is nothing if not daring. In Insig. nificance he brought together Einstein, Monroe and relativity. Now in Hysteria at the Royal Court he combines Freud, Dali and infantile seduction theories. The result is a flamboyantly, if erratically, brilliant play that matches Stoppard in its use of farce as a vehicle for serious ideas.

We are in Freud's Hampstead study in 1938. The old man has just been to see Rookery Nook. Suddenly his life turns into a surreal, fantastic version of the Ben Travers prototype. A young girl beats on the French windows demanding admittance. To gain Freud's attention she sheds all her clothes and has to be popped in the closet out of sight of Freud's inquisitive visitors: Abraham Yahuda, the biblical scholar who wants to stop Freud publishing Moses and Monotheism, and Salvador Dali who seems like the myth of Narcissus made manifest.

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child abuse in favour of the universality of fantasy. The latter attack is clearly based on Jeffrey Mousaieff Masson's The Assault on Truth. But it is only fair to say that Masson's charges have been rebutted by Richard Wollheim and others, and that, in purely dramatic terms, the accusation that Freud backtracked out of fear of the Viennese bourgeoisie and the skeletons lurking in his own parental closet is not made Sigmund? On one level, I suspect, because Johnson has seen the real hilarity in the unlikely confrontation of Dali and Freud. He builds superbly on a true incident in which the bewildered surrealist found a bike with a hot-water bottle attached to the saddle in Freud's backyard. Johnson even manages to incorporate the analyst's awestruck reaction to the moustachioed painter: "I've never seen a more complete example of a Spaniard." But like Eric Bentley, also sees that farce, with its obsessional neurosis, its enactment of subconscious fears, and Its destruction of the household gods, is an essentially Freudian entertainment.

So far, so dazzling. But Johnson also has a serious purpose and slyly hints that we are watching the death-fixated Freud's guiltridden dream. Jessica, the nocturnal visitor, turns out to be the daughter of one of Freud's 1,897 female patients. Her charge is twofold: that Freud turned a suicidal bysteric into a successful case history, and that he was guilty of careerist opportunism in abandoning his theories about You are strongly advised to check whether your travel organiser should hold an Air Organiser's Licence (ATOL). If it does, make sure you receive the ATOL holder's Booking Confirmation or Invoice, or the agent's which carries the name of the ATOL holder and his ATOL number.

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But this in no way invalidates the sheer theatrical audacity of a play that incorporates authentic pain into a farcical framework, or that finally renders Freud's fears in Daliesque terms clocks melt, doors turn to rubber, a swan descends from the ceiling, and a faceless patriarch towers over the cowering analyst. Phyllida Lloyd's production and Mark Thompson's design rise superbly to Johnson's extravagant demands. And there are remarkable performances from Henry Goodman as a harrassed, death-haunted Freud, Phoebe Nicholls as an anguished Jessica reliving her mother's nightmare, David de Keyser as the mosaically-protective Yahuda and Tim Potter as a fanatically self-admiring Dali. But Johnson's great achievement is that he has not only opened up the whole debate about Freud's theories on infantile seduction but has also managed to combine dramatic and traumatic values. Henry Goodman as Freud in Hysteria PHOTOGRAPH.

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