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by Alan Ayckbourn directed by Mathilde Berry-Graham, November 2007 
Miriam has cared for her father in the family home during his last years with the help of the creepily polite nurse, Alice. On Father‘s death, Miriam‘s older sister, attractive, divorced Annabel, returns home after over thirty years abroad to find Daddy has left the bulk of his fortune to her. In the unkempt grounds she is accosted by Alice, who claims that Miriam sacked her to do away with her father and has a letter to prove it. Gentle Miriam and resolute Annabel join forces against Alice, and soon the blackmailer‘s body is hurtling down the well to oblivion. But all does not end there ... Snake in the Grass is a spine-tingling suspense drama about murder and ghosts from the past and present, penned by the inimitable Alan Ayckbourn. 
Director's corner: What I found most exciting as a first-time director was the whole creative process. This started with reading through a number of plays to find the one which I could start visualizing in my head on the first read. I thought Snake in the Grass by Alan Ayckbourn was also the right play to face my fears as first-time director: three actresses, one set. You could hardly do more simple (except for stage design…). The second step was to pick up extracts which I thought best defined the characters for the auditions... How would I get the basic chemistry that I was looking for? Making choices was a tough call, but I have not looked back on the decisions I made for the cast. 
Then the rehearsals started… To see the text coming to life, jumping off the page and shaping itself in the hands and voices of the actresses has been an amazing experience, a true journey through the dialogues: finding nuances, motivations for the characters' actions and reactions, trying different perspectives for a scene together with the actresses, until something clicks and feels right, that was so exciting! 
What motivated me to try myself at directing? I'd say probably the will to try something new, my experience as a theatre-goer and as an actress, and "just a little push" from the HP Committee... Until I took this big step, I had been regularly thinking: what would I have done differently if I had been the one directing this scene? What did not feel right, or on the contrary, what felt so believable, so life-like, when watching plays or taking part in them? As a spectator or as an actor, one experiences when a scene flows well or not. As a director, one can actively influence the process, especially when the cast responds so well to suggestions and ideas, and adds their own interpretation to bring it all to life. 
The journey through rehearsals and up to seeing it on stage was a wonderful adventure. I am grateful for the support which I received from the HPs. I am particularly thankful to my cast, Carol McNamara, Lexi von Hoffmann and Valerie Doyle, for their commitment to this project and for all the moments we shared in rehearsals. 
My thanks also go to the crew for working so efficiently in the background. Denis Healy painted a wonderful backdrop for our set, a perfect looking run-down English garden which was even applauded by the audience in an opening scene! Ursula Schmidt provided all the props, garden tools, etc. to contribute to the general atmosphere. We had an impressive tennis court, a trap door to a well which our audiences did not expect and added so well to the suspense of the play 
Special thanks also to my "right-hand", down-to-earth assistant director Marinder Gill, and to Henrik Zawischa, Keith Williams, Martin Niemeyer and Rebecca Garron for their precious advice following our first runthrough. Let's not forget that all this would not have happened without Sir Alan's creative mind! |
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