Actor and playwright Kate Mulvany will play the bloodthirsty manipulator in Peter Evans’ intriguing new production.

Bell Shakespeare will open their 2017 season with Richard 3, Shakespeare’s historical play depicting the bloody rise to power of King Richard III of England and in a twist, Evans’ has cast award-winning Australian actor Kate Mulvany – well-known for her role in the Baz Luhrmann film The Great Gatsby – as the hunchbacked, Machiavellian villain. 

“This is the third in a series of productions 
Kate and I have collaborated on over the years, including Julius Caesar (2011) and Macbeth (2012),” said Evans. “In both those productions and again in Richard 3, Kate explores these plays and the roles of women within them as an actor and dramaturg. Richard 3 is a play where the grief and rage is carried by women who have to stand by as their husbands and sons die. Having Kate play the male protagonist, whose contempt for women is infamous, will bring a new layer to this production.”

^{Kate Mulvany as Cassius in Peter Evans’ 2011 production of Julius Caesar}

“When Peter Evans approached me two years ago to perform as...