Snake in the Grass

The Two Friendly Theatre Company’s production of “Snake in the Grass” from the pen of Alan Ayckbourn was an excellent piece of theatre. There were only three people in the cast of this very wordy play and all three produced spot-on characterisations and superb performances. The actors included Joanne Wasilew as Annabel and Helen Haygarth as Miriam, playing two estranged sisters with very different personalities who had not seen each other since Annabel left home a number of years earlier, their only communication over the years being by letter. The play begins as Annabel returns to the family home after the death of their father and after finding herself the main beneficiary in his will. The third member of the team was Rob Darby in the smaller role of Nurse Alex Moody who purportedly looked after the father before he died. All three cast members worked very well together and the relationship between the two sisters was very believable with a suggestion of something underlying that you just could not put your finger on. Diction was very clear, lines could be heard and were taken at just the right pace making it easy for the audience to follow the action. However the atmosphere of the play was full of twists, tension, undercurrents and surprises which kept the audience on the edge of their seats waiting to see what happened next. Even though this was a dark supernatural type of play there were some comedic moments which were played very well and were really funny for example when the two women were trying to get Alex’s body into the well after Miriam had supposing poisoned him.

The set, props and lighting were just right and added to the unsettling feeling of the play, also the timing of the tennis balls and the moving of the wind chimes was very frightening and almost made a number of the audience jump out of their seats.Well done to the stage and technical crew who added to the atmosphere and success of this play.

This was an outstanding production so well done to director Cliff Gillies and everybody involved in bringing this play to the stage my friend and I had a very enjoyable evening thank you, I hope to see you for your next production

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