Thursday, March 02, 2006

Hysteria

The last play I saw and laughed my head off was Terry Johnson's Hysteria. The scene takes place in Freud's office in Hampstead, London when Dali visited him in order to discuss the affinities between his work and Freud's interpretation of dreams as a series of associative thoughts.
Characters: Dali, Freud and Yahouda, Freud's doctor.

Dali: You suffer from piles.

Yahouda: How extraordinarily acute of you.

Dali: Dali suffers also.

Yahouda: I know; I've seen your pictures.

Dali: You do not like the work of Dali?

Yahouda: You want a frank answer?

Dali: Always.

Yahouda:I find your work explicitly obscene, deliberately obtuse, tasteless, puerile and very unpleasant to look at.

Dali: What is not to like in this?[...]

Dali: Metamorphosis of Narcissus! Is for you. Now you tell me . Look closely, and tell me. ..from what does Dali suffer?

Freud: Eyesight?

Dali: Is true! This man is a genius.


(Don't get me wrong, I am a Dali fan!)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where in London is it playing?

Mia Wallace said...

It is not in London at the moment!I saw it in Greece during Christmas break...