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Article: 'Hysteria': Jumping on Freud's Couch
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- October 16, 2009
- Author:
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The word "hysteria" can evoke hilarity, panic or madness; in the
play "Hysteria," British dramatist Terry Johnson careens through all
those definitions and more. At times it's a genuine riot -- after
all, it features Sigmund Freud, Salvador Dali and a naked woman
popping in and out of a closet -- but it also soberly yanks the
rug out from under its considerable intellectual fun.
Call it manic high jinks with a streak of clinical depression.
It's a heyday for Freudians and Freud haters alike as the aged
psychoanalyst gets subjected to a dreamy bout of door-slamming
farce.
In the slow-starting but eventually zippy production at Rep
Stage, Freud is played by Jeff Baker with an admirable ...