Comedy play marks anniversary of Freud’s birthday

An award winning comedy about Sigmund Freud is to have its Irish premiere in Dublin in line with the 150th anniversary of the birth of the renowned psychiatrist.

One of the actors, Alison McKenna, who stars in the play ’Hysteria’, said audiences could expect a treat.

The actress said the play, which will run in the Project Arts Centre in Dublin 2 from May 12 until June 3 next with low price previews, is set in Freud’s study in Hampstead in 1938 where he meets artist Salvador Dali, and chaos ensues.

“It has got an element of farce, thriller and suspense story, it has got everything,” she said.

“It is about Freud in the final stages of his life, he is in his study late at night and he gets an unexpected visitor, a young woman arrives at the patio door.”

She added: “You have Salvador Dali visiting Freud, who did in fact visit him in the last years of his life, but certainly not late at night.”

Terry Johnson’s play ’Hysteria’ has already scooped the Olivier Award for Best Comedy and the Writers Award for Best Play during its run in the UK.

The author, Johnson, said: “Over the years, at Chichester Festival Theatre, Loveday Ingram directed the three best ever revivals of my work, in one of which Alison McKenna played a key role and played it superbly.

“I’m immensely pleased they’ve teamed up again to present the Irish premiere of Hysteria.”

The play, directed by Loveday Ingram, opens next week at Dublin’s Project Arts Centre – just after the 150th anniversary of Freud’s birth.

But McKenna, who plays Jessica, said a person needs no prior knowledge of Freud’s theories of psychoanalysis to appreciate the play.

The work of the Austrian psychiatrist, who was born on May 6th 1856, introduced the concepts of the id, ego and superego.

The play by the B*spoke Theatre Company stars Darragh Kelly as Freud, and Rory Keenan as Dali.

McKenna, who is also one of the founders of the theatre company, said: “If it goes well in Dublin we might take it around the country.”

Other Irish premieres performed by the company include Frank McGuinness’s version of Electra and Tom Murphy’s The Drunkard.