Drama on 3: Schreber

A world premiere of Anthony Burgess' never produced screenplay of the iconic early 20th-century Memoir of My Nervous Illness by Daniel Schreber, seminal text for Freud et al. Originally written for Burt Lancaster to star, Burgess' 1975 screenplay is boldly refashioned for Radio 3 by award-winning writer Jeff Young, and stars Christopher Eccleston, who grew up in the same area as Anthony Burgess, and is a fan of his work. Daniel Schreber's story is extraordinary and little known outside psychiatric circles. In 19th-century Germany, Daniel Schreber was a successful, respected High Court judge. Out of nowhere, seemingly, he suffered a series of nervous breakdowns, requiring extensive hospitalisation. He recovered enough to come back home for short while, but was soon back in hospital, where he remained for the rest of his life. During his time back home, whilst briefly restored to full health, he gathered together notes he had made during his first hospitalisation and wrote them up, publishing the text in 1903 as Memoirs of My Nervous Illness. It was a brave and compassionate thing to do, given the stigma of mental illness. The book has become an iconic text in psychoanalysis - Freud analysed it extensively. Anthony Burgess was fascinated by Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, seeing it as a key to understanding modern life, with its intimate portrayal of repression and rebellion within the family. His exciting screenplay dramatises key sections of the book, developing one of Burgess' key themes about how messianic beliefs and personalities evolve. The end result is a moving portrait of the patient experience, focusing on Schreber's belief that he had to become a woman, in order to be impregnated by the sun and repopulate the earth.