This is the first revival of the play in London since its original 1988 National Theatre production, which subsequently transferred to the West End's Apollo Theatre, and was directed by Peter Gill, with Gillian Barge in the title role alongside Francesca Annis and Zoe Wanamaker. A different production was subsequently staged at Off-Broadway's Lucille Lortel Theatre in 1995 with Uta Hagen.

The play, set in London in 1934, revolves around the relationship between Melanie Klein (Higgins) with her psycho-analyst daughter Melitta (Walker), which has been damaged almost beyond repair. An unexpected message from abroad brings it to a bitter confrontation. The news also poses a mystery that even Mrs. Klein, despite her genius for analysis, cannot solve. It is left to her new assistant Paula (Walker), a refugee from Hitler's Berlin, to find a possible answer.

Higgins, who is making her Almeida debut, was recently seen at the National Theatre playing the Countess de Rossillion in All's Well That Ends Well. Other National Theatre credits include Nicholas Wright's Vincent in Brixton (which subsequently transferred to the West End and Broadway), Oedipus, The Secret Rapture, Children's Hour, Sweet bird of Youth, Absence of War, Napoli Millionaria and King Lear. Other theatre credits include Wallace Shawn's The Fever at the Royal Court, Death of a Salesman and Night of the Iguana, both at the West End's Lyric Theatre, and Hecuba and Phaedra, both for the Donmar Warehouse.

Waites has previously appeared at the Almeida in Edward Albee's The Play About the Baby. Other recent theatre credits include Nicholas Nickleby for Chichester Festival Theatre and in the West End, and appearances at the RSC in productions of Night of the Soul, The Prisoner's Dilemma, Twelfth Night, Othello, The Family Reunion and Romeo and Juliet.

Walker was last seen at the Almeida in Thea Sharrock's production of Caryl Churchill's Cloud Nine. Her other theatre credits include David Hare's Gethsemane for the National Theatre, where she has also appeared in Tales from the Vienna Wood, Edmond and Free, and Relocated, Fresh Kills, The Libertine, Man of Mode and Hated Nightfall all for the Royal Court.

Sharrock has previously directed Cloud Nine for the Almeida. She last directed As You Like It for Shakespeare's Globe. Other recent productions include the West End revival of Peter Shaffer's Equus with Richard Griffiths and Daniel Radcliffe that subsequently transferred to Broadway, A Voyage Round My Father which transferred from the Donmar Warehouse to Wyndham's Theatre, Heroes at Wyndham's Theatre, Blithe Spirit (at Bath Theatre Royal that subsequently transferred to the West End's Savoy Theatre) and Emperor Jones and Happy Now?, both for the National Theatre.

Wright's other plays include Cressida (premiered by the Almeida at the West End's Noel Coward Theatre, formerly the Albery) and Vincent in Brixton (that premiered at the National Theatre before transferring to the West End and Broadway) and The Reporter (National Theatre). His many adaptations include Wedekind's Lulu for the Almeida at King's Cross, Pirandello's Naked (for the Almeida, that subsequently transferred to the West End's Playhouse Theatre), and Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman, Chekhov's Three Sisters, Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, all for the National Theatre.

To book tickets contact the box office at 020 7359 4404, or visit www.almeida.co.uk.