How the Other Half Loves: The Mill at Sonning

Dating back to 1970, when it was a West End hit with Robert Morley — ‘bathroom stationery’ for loo paper was an offering from this notorious ad-libber that earned a place in the script — the play made Ayckbourn’s name, and fortune, in the US with a production starring Phil (Sgt Bilko) Silvers. It is unlikely that either star milked more laughter than John Arthur (above) from portraying company boss Frank Foster. Taking advantage, no doubt, of his easy-going nature, his glamourpuss wife Fiona (Karen Askoe, pictured) has enjoyed a fling with Bob Phillips (Neil Andrew), a married worker in Frank’s business.

The play begins on the morning after their late-night infidelity, and the action shifts between the Foster and Phillips households. But the brilliant wheeze from Britain’s most inventive modern playwright is to make both houses occupy the same space on stage. So as Frank and Fiona breakfast in their mansion, they are continually having to dodge, unseeing and unseen, Bob and his sluttish, suspicious wife Teresa (Penelope Rawlins) in their baby-ravaged flat.

Ayckbourn’s cunning then goes up another gear as we are not only shown two places at once but also two periods of time.

Bob and Fiona have both covered for their night of sin by pretending they were comforting acquaintances over marital difficulties (she the wife, he the husband). Each of their spouses then decides to give further ‘help’ to this couple — in fact as happy as anybody is in this play — by hosting a dinner for them. Whoops!

We are then present simultaneously at Friday night’s ‘do’ chez Foster as dull dog accountant William (Harry Gostelow) and nervous wife Mary (Alison Pettitt) wallow way out of their social depth while nervously toying with avocados (so period!) and at a Saturday night disaster where their hosts go ballistic over unspeakable air-freshener flavoured soup. Brilliant stuff.

Until April 28. Box office: 0118 969 8000.