Hysteria

May 13-June 14, $39-$55, Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St., 215-546-7824, wilmatheater.org.

by Mark Cofta

theater

Fictional meetings between factual characters are nearly a theatrical genre now, especially at the Wilma. Witness this season's Schmucks (Lenny Bruce and Groucho Marx) and several Tom Stoppard plays. Now there's Terry Johnson's acclaimed trippy comedy Hysteria, which imagines what might have happened in 1938 when father of psychiatry Sigmund Freud and surrealist painter Salvador Dali met. Johnson's a pioneer in this "factual fantasy" category, having penned Insignificance, which conjures a tryst between Marilyn Monroe and Albert Einstein. Hysteria promises melting clocks and Freudian slips in a mistaken-identity farce — an appropriately heady romp to celebrate the end of the Wilma's 30th season.