The horrid history of Emma Eckstein and Sigmund Freud might not be the most obvious basis for a tragicomedy of errors and ego, and yet this imaginary history of a calamitous real-life relationship makes compelling watching. So brava to this fine collaboration between Scissor Kick & HissyFit.
Freud and Eckstein Reimagined: A Gripping Two-Hander
A two-hander written and performed by HissyFit’s Becca Robin Dunn and Claire Macallister, the show blends witty, exquisitely timed dialogue, interludes of arresting physical theatre, and the lightest smattering of verbatim performance. From the opening scenes, Dunn’s thoughtful, propulsive Eckstein and Macallister’s awkward, intellectually curious neurologist play off one another with the hypnotic rhythm of a cracking tennis match.
Tormented by menstrual pain, irregular periods, and nose bleeds, she begins their association with, “You have to be the one”, whereupon Freud determines to be her saviour. Yet, instead of a patient, he finds himself a collaborator, a woman in need of his genius, but determined to find her own answers. Bookending chapters in their association are snippets of wordless action: sometimes a pulsing dance as Emma journeys from despair into hope, dismay and defiance, other times an atavistic duet, the pair stripped of speech and erudition and interacting with a mixture of ape-like curiosity and fear.
The play would work without these snippets, but neither are they superfluous. With a haunting soundtrack from Niroshini Thambar, and highly polished by Movement Director Melanie Jordan, they offer a different lens on the story, unshackled by time or place. These abstracted moments could be more judiciously dispensed, but they are entirely apt for a play so invested in theories of the subconscious mind.
… this imaginary history of a calamitous real-life relationship makes compelling watching.
Such arresting sequences would imbalance a play with less powerful ‘traditional’ action, but Olivia Millar-Ross demonstrates a sure hand with both aspects of the production. She and the writer/performers are fearless in finding the ‘funny’ in now-debunked theories of nose/genital association, and in the utterly hilarious ‘banter warrior’ (that one’s for fans of Pottery Throwdown — if you know, you know) scene, which introduces Freud’s one-time bestie Wilhelm Fliess, surgeon and self-loving crackpot.
Pseudoscience and Body Horror: The Shadow of Wilhelm Fliess
Yet the sparkling wit and droll character comedy gilding the opening scenes eventually evaporates, consumed by the horrid fruits of pseudoscience and toxic masculinity.
The scene standing in for Fleiss’s horrific operation on Emma’s nose, intended to rid her of her ‘sexual problems’ (i.e., being somewhat depressed and fond of masturbation), takes an innocent orange deep into body-horror territory. Watching her try to scoop it back together in the aftermath is particularly heartbreaking.
Such arresting sequences would imbalance a play with less powerful ‘traditional’ action, but Olivia Millar-Ross demonstrates a sure hand with both aspects of the production.
Of course, some liberal rewriting and supposition are upping the ante throughout, but Freud really was an advocate of cocaine, and he did train Eckstein, who would become the first woman psychoanalyst. Far from standing up to Freud, their relationship carried on for years after the events in the play. Yet Sigmund’s journey from an early advocate of victim-centred support to a proponent of ‘hysteria’ as the answer to almost everything is true, as is Eckstein’s ultimate dissociation from her one-time colleague and physician.
Plus, Dunn and Macallister only let the wish-fulfilment go so far. Freud’s own words, read from his own letters in the aftermath of Fleiss’s butchery, might condemn him to modern ears, but his professional ascendancy overtakes any moments of empowered self-assertion they grant to Eckstein.
In the end, this co-production between Scissor Kick and HissyFit is a superb piece of theatre, setting the promise of what might have been against the tragedy of what actually was and finding a gripping, funny, thoughtful and deeply sad drama in the space between.
All Images: Jackals Production Photography by Mihaela Bodlovic
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