The Mill at Sonning

Box office

0118 969 8000

Sonning Eye, Reading, RG4 6TY.

I Ought to be in Pictures, 14th July to 21st August
By Neil Simon. Herb Tucker has it easy. He lives in a Hollywood beach house, has a beautiful and adoring girlfriend, Steffy, and makes his living as a screenwriter… Well, it’s not quite like that. Herb is struggling with writer’s block, his beach house is a cheap and colourless bungalow, and he can’t bring himself to propose marriage. Cue the arrival of the lively and determined Libby, a nineteen year old who speaks to her dead grandmother and dreams of becoming a movie star in any way she can! We soon discover that Libby is Herb’s daughter, whom he hasn’t seen since he walked out on her mother sixteen years previously. Libby, demanding that Herb helps her break into the movie business, moves in, and soon emotions run high as Herb is forced to deal with his past, his responsibilities as a father, and his fear of commitment.

Spring and Port Wine, 25th August to 9th October
Rafe Crompton rules his wife, Daisy, and their four children with a rod of iron. But the tide is turning. Florence has found love with a local sheet metalworker. Hilda wants to stay out late like her friends – and drink port wine. Wilf and Harold long for their own place away from this strict regime. It is a small bit of defiance from Hilda that starts the rebellion. She refuses to eat the herring put in front of her. Uproar. And Dad in a fine old rage says Hilda will be given the same piece of fish every day until she eats it. But like father, like daughter. Hilda is as stubborn as her father. The whole situation blows up into an uproarious family row. But does Dad mellow? As the family looks to be coming apart at the seams, the Cromptons learn that despite being from two generations, nothing is more important than family love. Bill Naughton’s comic masterpiece pays homage to a great period of Lancashire comedies. Set in a terraced home, Spring and Port Wine tracks the lives of the Crompton family, reflecting changes in attitudes and life in the late 1960s.

Two Into One, 13th October to 27th November
Members of Parliament in deep trouble! What a surprise! But here it’s not so much about cheating on expenses and moats, more about cheating on loving and losing. Richard Willey, MP, is determined to have extra marital relations with luscious and acquiescent Jennifer. Jennifer just happens to be secretary to the Prime Minister. Therefore discretion is needed. Who better to lend a helping hand than George Pigden, a willing Parliamentary assistant, even if he is a bit of a bumbler? Pigden is told to book the lovers into a hotel as Sir and Lady Easter. Simple enough. But it is Noel Christmas who takes over the luxurious suite. Easter, Christmas, what’s in a name? Throw into the ensuing mayhem a suspicious Hotel Manager, Willey’s wife, Jennifer’s jealous fiancé, a wily waiter and a Labour female dragon of an MP trying to launch her anti-vice bill, and you get the sort of crazy comedy that only Ray Cooney, the certified king of farce, can deliver!

A Bedfull of Foreigners, 30th November to 15th January
A comedy by Dave Freeman. Spare a thought for Englishman Stanley Parker. He and his wife Brenda are on their first continental holiday in France, trying to rekindle their marriage. When they check in to a quaintly charming hotel, they feel set for a night of love and romance, but what could possibly go wrong? Oh… everything! Unfortunately for Stanley and Brenda, the calamitous Hotel Manager, Heinz, has foolishly double-booked the room with French birthday boy Claude Philby. Claude gets more than his fair share of cake when his German wife Helga unexpectedly turns up. He was expecting his glamorous mistress and cabaret artiste, Simone. And when Simone also arrives early and mistakenly performs a seductive dance for the unwitting Stanley, it’s our innocent Brit, rather than randy Claude, who’s going to have his hands full … in more ways than one. Throw into the confusion a befuddled hotel porter, Karak, and the absurdity of a local fancy dress festival, which ensures nuns, monks and court jesters running amok, and the pace is set for an evening of comic misunderstandings, bed hopping, lost trousers and airborne radiators!

For more details

see the Mill's web site at www.millatsonning.com.