Dean Bryant was keen to cast Christie Whelan Browne in the stage adaptation of the famous film All About Eve. But should she play Margo or Eve? He tells Lenny Ann Low how he came to decide she should play both, while Whelan Browne explains why it’s a privilege to feel nervous about taking on the challenge.

Christie Whelan Browne in the hero image for All About Eve at Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre. Photo © Nicole Reed

We all have abnormality in common,” says Addison DeWitt, the cynical, sardonic theatre critic played by George Sanders in the 1950 film All About Eve. “We’re a breed apart from the rest of humanity, we theatre folk. We are the original displaced personalities.”

The Academy...