Although well-received by the critics,
this play did not quite work for me. Maybe I just don’t like farces. My
po-facedness was summed up with the line ‘It’s a Freudian slip’ from one of the
characters, brandishing a piece of underwear at Freud. The deeper theme of the
play was quite well-presented – his change of mind from hysteria being the
result of actual to fantasized sexual abuse. This was presented as a result of
Freud’s own thoughts towards a daughter and his repugnance at the thought of
his father abusing his sister. However, it seems unlikely to me that the father
of psychoanalysis would have been unaware of such obvious motivations. I also
thought the presentation of Dali as a Spanish buffoon was a bit clichéd.
However, it was definitely worth seeing, especially for Anthony Sher as Freud.
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