Peter Evans' production of Richard 3 moves the action of the last Wars of the Roses play into a claustrophobic 1930s high-ceilinged space, where the chairs are ornate and the characters lounge around in suits and long dresses. Handel's Zadok the Priest announces the coronation of Edward IV and the hymn Jerusalem ushers in Richmond who will become Henry VII. Buckingham's severed head is cleared away into the dumbwaiter and laughter and urbanity mask the growing threat of Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Kate Mulvany).

There's a deal of deceptively languid atmosphere and upstage what looks like a dark collection of armour eventually reveals itself as images of a distorted back. But whether this all works to explain the tangle of characters and events in the play is debatable. You may need to brush up beforehand.

However, this version has at its heart Mulvany's twisted, tiny Richard, flirting with the audience, snarling at his enemies, always a dangerous person to be around. And Mulvany makes powerful use of the fact that she, like the historical Richard whose bones were discovered in 2012 in Leicester, has scoliosis.

The Wars of the Roses seem to be at an end with the coronation of Richard's brother King Edward IV (Kevin MacIsaac). But Richard, always taking the audience into his confidence, has no desire to allow peace to reign. Neither has the exiled queen Margaret (Sandy Gore), widow of King Henry VI, who still haunts the court, seeing the future of all her old enemies with savage clarity.

Those enemies initially ignore her prophecies and ignore Richard. Clarence (Gareth Reeves) tousles Richard's hair in passing, treating him as the kid brother, but becomes the first casualty as Richard turns Edward against him. The bodies mount up. Clarence is murdered in the Tower of London, which hastens Edward's death and leaves the kingdom in the hands of young and restlessly immature Prince Edward (Rose Riley). Hastings (Ivan Donato) stands up for him but is swept aside. With Richard as Lord Protector and clearly aiming for the crown the prince is never going to last long.

Richard also woos the Lady Anne (Riley), whose husband and father he has already killed, in a powerfully done scene where her eventual compliance defies any sense yet is so strong a testament to this Richard's disturbing allure.

And time and again he tells the audience what he is going to do, making them his accomplices.

Even his chief onstage accomplice, James Evans' rational Buckingham, becomes a victim but not before Richard finally and gleefully becomes king.

Set against all of this are the women. It is Queen Margaret in Gore's disturbingly dignified performance who leads their laments late in the play. Edward's Queen Elizabeth (Meredith Penman) goes from complacency to the loss of husband, children and position. Anne's marriage to Richard is a nightmare. Richard's mother the Duchess of York (Sarah Woods) sees she has a monster for a son and forcefully tells him so.

Richard falters briefly into self-awareness when haunted by his victims before Bosworth but it's transitory. The battle brings some justice but it is Mulvany's dark devil of a Richard that remains most memorable. And that's what you should go and see.