NOT only is performing live a true test of an actor's ability, it also puts the playwright's script under a very public microscope.

In writing terms, for me Alan Ayckbourn can do no wrong.

And if I harboured even the slightest doubts about his durability these days then his latest effort Snake in the Grass, staged at the Old Laundry, erased them totally.

Snake flits beautifully between comedy and suspense.

Not a ghost story in the strictest sense, it is both gripping and funny at the same time.

Switching from darkness to light and back.

It revolves around two, sort of estranged sisters, a nurse and a deceased father.

Years ago one sister Annabel left - or should I say escaped - home leaving her younger sister Miriam to pick up the pieces and as father grew old, cared for him, with a little help latterly from black-hearted nurse, Alice Moody.

He dies and Annabel (Fiona Mollison) inherits father's money.

She comes back to England to sell the house but is faced with blackmailing Alice (Rachel Atkins) and a conspiring and deadly sister (Susie Blake).

Amazing how a trio of actors with one (and very clever) set can captivate an audience for nigh on two hours.

AM.