HYSTERIA

BY TERRY JOHNSONDIRECTOR SUSANNA DOWLING

31 MAR -30 APR

ETERNITY PLAYHOUSE

SUPPORTED BY THE STAFFORD MORGAN FAMILY

HYSTERIABY TERRY JOHNSON

Darlinghurst Theatre Company is a professional theatre company with a unique model of creating theatre. At the very heart of our company is a firm belief that theatre’s role is to promote a democracy of ideas. We develop theatre that explores our lives and forges a direct and powerful connection between artist and audiences. Most unique is that our company professionally produces and fully funds production concepts proposed and put forward to our company by artists. We offer artists the freedom to stage and tell the stories they want to tell, and we ensure that diverse voices are heard on our stage. Our remarkable venue reflects our company’s passion and commitment to live theatre. Darlinghurst Theatre Company spent five years from 2008 to 2013 working with the City of Sydney on the development of the Eternity Playhouse and we raised $630K for its set up and fit out. I am very proud of this achievement and our ongoing commitment to artists and the community. A heartfelt thankyou to Susanna Dowling who came to us with a compelling and wonderful vision for the production, Hysteria. The making of Hysteria has been extraordinary and I cannot thank the artists, team and crew enough for their wonderful work.

GLENN TERRY | Executive Producer, Darlinghurst Theatre Company

A DARLINGHURST THEATRE COMPANY PRODUCTION

CAST Miranda DaughtryMichael McStayWendy StrehlowJo Turner CREATIVESDirector: Susanna Dowling

Production Designer: Anna Gardiner

Lighting Designer: Daniel Barber

Sound Designer: Katelyn Shaw

Stage Manager: Amy Morcom Video Engineer: Raine Paul

Cinematographer: Julian Tynan

Camera Assistant: James Fraser

Colourist: Vitor Queiroz

Hair and Makeup Artist: Martelle Hunt Set Construction: Emily Polson, Brett Wilbe & Marcus Kelson

PRODUCTION TEAMExecutive Producer: Glenn Terry

Producer: Amy Harris

Event & Front of House Manager: Rebecca Michel-Gerke

Communications Manager: Tania-Lee Turbin

Technical Manager: Cat Studley

Administrator: Ashlee Monaghan

Assistant Producer: Hugo Chiarella

Videographer: Yure Covich

FOH Supervisor: Derbail Kinsella FOH Staff: Ash Adamthwaite, Elle Crumpton, Sinead Curry, Sarah Jane Kelly, Sean Sinclair, Julianne Sisinni, Alex Ward & Michael Yore

Technicians: Romy McKanna & Sophie Pekbilimli

Catering by Two Trout:Lockie Clifford & Theo Hlorotiris

Darlinghurst Theatre Company acknowledges the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of the nation and the traditional custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.

CONTAINS Adult themes Smoke effects Low level strobe lighting Warning: Hysteria contains scenes that some viewers may find disturbing.

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ETERNITY PLAYHOUSE 39 BURTON STREET, DARLINGHURST

DARLINGHURSTTHEATRE.COM.AU PHONE 02 9331 3107

RUNNING TIME 2.5 hours including interval.

DIRECTOR’S NOTE In his artistic poem Don Juan, Byron wrote, ‘…if I laugh at any mortal thing, ‘Tis that I may not weep.’ This could be a description of Terry Johnson’s mad, funny, complex play that imagines what Freud’s final moments might have been like. What were the demons that haunted him? How did he justify his own escape from Austria when his sisters were left behind? Were there other people hurt on his journey to becoming the ‘Father of Psychoanalysis’? Was his work a serious science, or just ‘badly argued piffle’?

In this play, we see Freud reckoning with judgments he made about humanity at two different times. In the 1890s, his work with hysterical patients led him to draw the conclusion that a huge number of middle-class men were abusing their own children. In 1938, he saw the beginnings of the worst atrocity of the twentieth century, the Nazi’s systemised attack on the Jewish people. Both times, he came across horrific truths about what human beings can do to other human beings, and both times he came to the conclusion that they couldn’t possibly be true – that they were ‘fundamentally unthinkable’. He backed away from the uncomfortable truths he had discovered, both times refusing to engage with what he saw. Johnson posits that in order to push past these unpleasant truths, Freud had to extinguish his emotions and become solely a thinking, rational being. But of course, that’s impossible. Guilt, fear, doubt, love – these things refuse to leave him, even in his last moments.

It’s something we’re all grappling with at the moment – at a time when the fundamentally unthinkable has become all too real. The revelations from the Royal Commission on clerical child abuse – fundamentally unthinkable. The rise of populist nationalism and the angry xenophobia that it stirs – fundamentally unthinkable. But in spite of that, these things reveal themselves as truths, whether we are able to accept them or not. It begs the question – can we extinguish our feelings so easily?

The beauty of Johnson’s play is that he’s able to make us think about such complex and troubling ideas by using the silliest of theatrical forms, the English farce. By making us laugh at the bleakest moment, he reminds us of our humanity. Our humanity, which will save us in the end.

SUSANNA DOWLING

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Susanna’s recent directing credits include: Tribes by Nina Raine (Ensemble); Snugglepot & Cuddlepie (adapted by Monkey Baa, CDP Productions); Top Girls by Caryl Churchill (NIDA); Neighbourhood Watch by Lally Katz (Illuminate Educate); Midsummer Night’s Dream (Sport for Jove); The Hungry Ghost created with Mei Tsering (City of Sydney); Intimate Letters (AD), Tartuffe (AD), Henry V (AD), Resident Director 2014 (Bell Shakespeare); The Long Way Home by Daniel Keene (Assistant/Tour Director), In a Heart Beat created with Jo Turner, Education Resident Artist 2012 (Sydney Theatre Company); Girl in Tan Boots by Tahli Corin (Griffin Independent), Summer of the Seventeenth Doll by Ray Lawler- Assistant Director, The Kiss by Anton Chekhov, Kate Chopin, Peter Goldsworthy and Guy de Maupassant and Yellow Moon by David Greig (Belvoir). Susanna is a Graduate of Trinity College, Dublin (BA), UNSW (MA) and NIDA (Graduate Diploma in Directing).

SUSANNA DOWLINGDirector

TERRY JOHNSONPlaywright

Terry Johnson is a multi-award winning playwright and winner of two Olivier Awards for Best Comedy in 1994 and 1999, a Critics Circle Award for Best New Play in 1995, a Time Out Best Play Award in 1995 and two Writers Guild Best Play Awards in 1995 and 1996. He is a former Literary Associate at the Royal Court Theatre where he has had five of his own plays produced; Insignificance, Cries From The Mammal House, Hysteria, Hitchcock Blonde and Piano/Forte.

Michael McStay is an actor, writer, director and musician. He is a 2013 NIDA graduate. Michael has appeared in Lachlan Philpott’s Colder (dir. Kevin Jackson); William Shakespeare’s Othello (dir. Jennifer Hagan); Sam Shepard’s A Lie Of The Mind (dir. Rodney Fisher); Enda Walsh’s Sucking Dublin (dir. James Dalton); George Bernard Shaw’s The Shewing Up Of Blanco Posnet (dir. Con Costi); Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage And Her Children (dir. Eamon Flack, Belvoir St) and Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters (dir. Kevin Jackson, Sport For Jove). Michael’s original productions include Threnody (The Old Fitz, October 2016) and Bright Those Claws That Mar The Flesh (The Old Fitz, June 2016). His upcoming production is titled Amongst Ruins, Snake Eggs Hatch (New Fitz Writer’s Program, April 2017). As a musician, Michael has achieved his AMEB Grade Eight Certificate in Piano and AMEB Grade Five Certificate in Music Theory. He also plays guitar, sings and composes.

MICHAEL MCSTAY Salvalor Dali

Adelaide born, Sydney trained actor, Miranda Daughtry graduated NIDA (BDA, Acting) in 2015. Her NIDA credits include ‘Diana’ in the debut performance of Nicki Bloom’s Vale and ‘Beatrice’ in Much Ado About Nothing. Over the next twelve months Miranda will be working in theatre both in Adelaide and Sydney including as a member of the STCSA Ensemble.

MIRANDA DAUGHTRY Jessica

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One of Australia’s most accomplished actors, Wendy Strehlow has an impressive list of film, theatre and television credits. Wendy has enjoyed a remarkable stage career, performing in an extensive number of theatre companies, including Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Machinal and Travesties; Bell Shakespeare’s Henry IV and Taming of the Shrew; Sport for Jove’s The Crucible, Loves Labours Lost, The Importance of Being Earnest, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream; B Sharp’s Bang; Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s The Memory of Water; Ensemble Theatre’s Clybourne Park; Broken Glass and The Norman Conquests; Black Swan Theatre’s Sixteen Words for Water; and Tamarama Rock Surfer’s critically acclaimed I Want to Sleep With Tom Stoppard. Her television credits include, Here Come the Habibs!, Hyde & Seek, Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am, Soul Mates, McLeod’s Daughters, All Saints, Blue Heelers, Halifax f.p., The Saddle Club, Home and Away and A Country Practice, for which she won a Logie Award. Her feature films include Dalkeith, Dead End, Act of Necessity and Hoodwink.

As Actor (Theatre): Railway Wonderland (Northern Rivers Performing Arts), The Incredible Book Eating Boy (CDP); The Ugly One (Griffin Independent); Ruby Moon, Thyestes and Howard Katz (Sydney Theatre Company); The 39 Steps (Kay and McLean Productions); The Window (Arts Asia Pacific); Weather and Somewhere (Q Theatre); The Imaginary Invalid (Ensemble); Emma’s Nose (La Boite); Plainsong (Black Swan State Theatre Company); The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Belvoir) and Dead on the Ground (Hoipolloi Theatre). Television: Dr Blake, Camp, Home and Away, All Saints, White Collar Blue and Backberner. Film: Truth and You Can’t Stop the Murders. As Director: Ruby’s Wish (Belvoir); Prison Songs (Darwin Festival); Avenue Q (Enmore Theatre); Don’t Stare too Much!, Mademoiselle Fifi and Deathtrap (Darlinghurst Theatre Company); The Graduate, My First Time and Waiting for Godot (Associate) (Kay and McLean); Peter and the Wolf and Darlingwood Tales (Sydney Opera House); The Grief Parlour (Riverside/Clockfire); Fools Island and Stolen (Workshop) (STC -Ed); The Jinglists (TRS/Critical Stages); No Chance in Hell Hotel (IPAC/Critical Stages); Cubbyhouse (Old Fitz); House on Fire and Mr Puntila and His Man Matti (ATYP). As Writer: Ruby’s Wish (co-author), Prison Songs, In a Heart Beat, Max Remy - In Search of the Time and Space Machine, Ishmael and The Return of the Dugongs and The Window (co-author). Phillip Parsons Fellowship winner 2017.

WENDY STREHLOW Abraham Yahuda

JO TURNER Sigmund Freud

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ANNA GARDINER Production Designer

A WAAPA graduate, Anna has designed numerous productions across Sydney including, Twelfth Night, The Crucible, The Taming of the Shrew and Cyrano De Bergerac (Sport for Jove Theatre); Absent Friends, Ladies in Lavender, Jack of Hearts, A History of Falling Things, Betrayal and Odd Man Out (Ensemble Theatre); This Fella and My Memory (Moogahlin Performing Arts); Henry V (Bell Shakespeare); Blood Brothers (Enda Markey Presents); The Unknown Soldier (Monkey Baa); Shellshock (Riverside Theatre); Inner Voices (Set Design, Don’t Look Away); Title and Deed (Belvoir); And I’m the Queen of Sheba (Brown’s Mart); Blink (Stories Like These). Anna has been nominated for four Sydney Theatre Awards. She was nominated for a Greenroom Award for Henry V and was the winner of the 2014 Sydney Theatre Award for Best Stage Design of a Mainstream Production for Henry V. Anna received the 2015 APDG Emerging Designer for Stage Award for her work on The Crucible.

Daniel found lighting at the age of 12 and has been working his way into the professional world ever since. Recent credits include Blink (Stories Like These), Remembering Pirates (Darlinghurst Theatre Company), Associate LD for both Faith Healer (Belvoir St) and Turquoise Elephant (Griffin Theatre Company), Il Segreto Di Susanna/Bluebeard’s Castle– Double Bill and The Magic Flute (State Opera of SA), An Evening with Annabel Crabb (Annabel Crabb), The Country (Stone/Castro), Mother, Wife and the Complicated Life (Popjam Productions) and Biddigal Dreaming (Biddigal Performing Arts).Throughout all disciplines of theatre, Daniel is known for finding interesting and new ways of utilising known tools of the trade and adapting them to create visual feasts for the audience. Subtlety can often conquer extravagance and Daniel enjoys exploiting that idiom.

DANIEL BARBER Lighting Designer

AMY MORCOM Stage Manager

Amy is stage manager, producer and yoga teacher with a BA (Communication – Theatre/Media) (Hons I), which offered many opportunities to devise, produce and perform in various forms of theatre. Amy’s experience includes ASM for Belvoir on That Face, Peter Pan and Page 8, and all 100+ performances of The Wild Duck on tour around the world. She produced Woyzeck (Arts Radar / B Sharp); Selkie at the WITS Festival Fatale; assistant produced HOLLYWOOD ENDING (Arts Radar/Theatre503 / Griffin Independent) and enjoyed a glorious stint as the Apocalypse Bear and Stage Manager on Stories I Want to Tell You in Person (Belvoir). She has also worked for Big hART, Griffin Theatre Company, AFTT and events company The Epic Team. In the UK, Amy worked in various roles with Les Enfants Terribles, produced Bukowski’s Cass at VAULT Festival, was dep ASM on the National Theatre’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and produced for STOMP in the West End and for the world tour. Amy was SM for A Life in the Theatre at Darlinghurst Theatre Company and is very pleased to be back for Hysteria.

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KATELYN SHAW Sound Designer

Katelyn is a Sydney based Sound Designer, and recent graduate of NIDA. Her previous design credits include; as Associate Sound Designer: Diary of a Wombat (Monkey Baa); Ruby’s Wish (Belvoir) and Swallow (National Theatre of Parramatta). As Sound Designer: Blink (Stories Likes These/bAKEHOUSE); Dot and the Kangaroo, There will be a Climax, and The Space Between the Fuel and the Fire (NIDA); Remembering Pirates and A Man with Five Children (Darlinghurst Theatre Company); Crocodile Tears and Space Cats (Brevity Theatre); Look Back in Anger and The Whale (Red Line Productions); Hurt (Whitebox Theatre); Inner Voices (Don’t Look Away/Red Line Productions); Belleville (Mad March Hare/Red Line Productions); Tender Napalm (Brevity Theatre/Red Line Productions); and A Riff on Keef: The Human Myth (Ocelot Productions/Griffin Independent).

THANK YOU

Darlinghurst Theatre Companyand Hysteria team would like to thank the following for their support in staging this production:

THANK YOUAiden Brennan David Campbell Kinsley ReeveRichard Whitehouse Bell Shakespeare Belvoir Carriageworks Ensemble Griffin NIDA Sport for Jove Sydney Film School

BOARD

Jim Behringer

Ian Enright

Kevin Farmer

Iain Knight

Vicki Middleton

Pat Skalsky

Dominic Tayco

A DARLINGHURST THEATRE COMPANY

20 17SEASON

ETERNITY PLAYHOUSE 39 BURTON STREET, DARLINGHURST

DARLINGHURSTTHEATRE.COM.AU PHONE 02 9331 3107

PRODUCTION PATRONS

Dawn Talbot & Richand Balanson

Ian Barnett

Karen & Neil Midalia

Stafford Morgan Family

Charmaine & Stanley Roth

Screenwise

Dominic Tayco and Darren Conlon

GOVERNMENT PARTNERS PREFFERED WINE SUPPORTER

Darlinghurst Theatre Company is supported through the City of Sydney’s Accommodation Grant Program

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