Snake In The Grass: Facts

Key Facts relating to Alan Ayckbourn's Snake In The Grass.

• Snake In The Grass is Alan Ayckbourn's 61st play.
• The world premiere was held at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, on 5 June 2002.
• The London premiere was held at The Print Room, London, on 14 February 2011 and was directed by Lucy Bailey.
• 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).

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