The Stage

Mrs Klein

Published Monday 2 November 2009 at 18:10 by Heather Neill

If Socrates asserts that the unexamined life is not worth living, then Nicholas Wright’s brilliant play, with its coruscating dialogue and knowing humour, seems to suggest that too close examination renders familial harmony impossible.

Zoe Waites (Melitta) and Clare Higgins (Mrs Klein) in Mrs Klein at the Almeida Theatre Photo: Tristram Kenton

The relationship between analyst and patient, with its opportunities for conflict and the revelation of secrets, is inherently theatrical. Wright makes the most of this and further complicates matters by introducing the jealousies and tensions of a mother-daughter relationship - one which also includes professional rivalry - at a moment of grief-stricken crisis.

Melanie Klein, established in thirties London as an analyst with a particular interest in infant psychology, has received the news of the death of her son, Hans. She is visited by two other analysts, an acolyte who wishes to become her patient and her daughter Melitta who openly opposes her professionally. Is Klein guilty of driving her son to suicide? What are her daughter’s motives in suggesting this? Is the refugee, Paula, intent on replacing Melitta as Klein’s “daughter”?

Klein’s theories - she personifies the good breast/bad breast idea as controlling mother and objective intellectual - are woven into the dialogue which sizzles with the difficulty of reconciling theory with messy human emotion. For these highly intelligent, role-playing characters, knowledge of the symbolism of their thoughts and actions provides few solutions.

In this first UK revival since its 1988 National Theatre premiere, Thea Sharrock’s cleverly-modulated production has Clare Higgins inhabiting multifaceted Klein with matchless flair. Zoe Waites as her spiteful, damaged daughter and Nicola Walker as the interloper Paula, caught between them but perhaps the most calculating of all, complete an exemplary ensemble in Tim Hatley’s womb-red drawing room set.