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Mrs Klein at Almeida, N1

There's a mean pleasure to be taken from psychoanalysts who fall out with their children. If they fail, how can the rest of us hope to succeed? Nicholas Wright's old-fashioned, satisfying play is fascinated by the fractious relationship between the pioneering child psychoanalyst Melanie Klein and her daughter, Melitta, who shares the same profession. The latter's feelings of maternal neglect and professional rivalry are revealed over a single night in 1934. In a north London study (with couch, of course), painted a womb-like red, mother and daughter (Zoe Waites) fiercely examine each other's behaviour in Thea Sharrock's intense production. They are observed by Nicola Walker's Paula, a more recent refugee from Germany, who is not quite as passive as she first appears. As Mrs Klein, Clare Higgins completely convinces as a powerful woman who is only too well aware of her own contradictions. Less attractive is the professional jargon, especially when Klein turns every molehill into a breast.