With just three actors, the writer-director conjures enough back story in what he puts on the stage to keep the cast of a Shakespearean epic busy. The depth of characterisation is truly phenomenal.

Snake in the Grass is the second in a trilogy, The Things that Go Bump, which makes up this year's summer season at Scarborough.

The plays share several themes and ideas, but the main thing they have in common is that they set out to spook the audience and send a chill through the auditorium on sunny summer days.

In Snake in the Grass, Annabel, played by Liza Goddard, returns home
following the death of her father, having lived abroad for the best part of two decades. She left behind Miriam, played by Susie Blake, who cared for dad and seems somewhat disturbed from the effort
of having done so.

Ayckbourn expertly peels back the layers of the characters and both Goddard and Blake are mesmerising, living and breathing utter reality into their roles.

This is not as spooky as the other show playing in rep, Haunting Julia, it is however superior in its exploration of the human condition. In short, vintage Ayckbourn.

At Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough until August.