Snake in the Grass: In Brief
Snake in the Grass
Play Number: 61World Premiere: 5 June 2002
Venue: Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough
Premiere Staging: In-the-round
Published: Samuel French
Other Media: No
Cast: 3f
Run Time: 2hrs
Synopsis: Annabel Chester returns home to her sister after the death of their abusive father only to be confronted by a blackmail plot, which quickly escalates out of hand with grim consequences.
- Snake In The Grass is Alan Ayckbourn's 61st play.
- The world premiere - directed by Alan Ayckbourn - was held at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, on 5 June 2002.
- The London premiere - directed by Lucy Bailey - was held at The Print Room, London, on 14 February 2011.
- It is the first - and as of writing, only - play by Alan Ayckbourn to feature an all-female cast.
- A major inspiration for the play was the influential French film Les Diaboliques, released in 1955 and directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.
- The play was written with the same staging requirements as his play Joking Apart; this was due to the original production being staged in repertory with Joking Apart.
- The play's original title was Grass Widow, which Alan used to describe his plans for the new play in correspondence from 2001.
- Snake In The Grass is one of three supernatural plays written by Alan Ayckbourn - although it is important to note he does not consider these plays to be a trilogy. The other two plays are Haunting Julia (1994) and Life & Beth (2008).
- The play is regarded as a companion piece to Haunting Julia (and to an extent Life & Beth) in one of its major themes is how parents treat their children.
- Unlike Haunting Julia - where a supernatural presence is definitely intended - it is left ambiguous as to the nature of the supernatural element in Snake In The Grass and could be interpreted as all being in Miriam's mind.
- Contrary to what other web-sites might report, Snake In The Grass is not part of a trilogy called Things That Go Bump. This is because Alan Ayckbourn has never written a trilogy called Things That Go Bump nor does he consider Snake In The Grass to be part of a trilogy (although it has thematic connections to his other supernatural plays).
- Although published as a play text by Samuel French, Snake in the Grass was also published in the collection Alan Ayckbourn: Plays 5 (Faber).