Life, love and innuendo in the 1990s

Don’t Rock the Boat
The Mill, Sonning

From the 1970s (after theatre censorship ended) to the 1990s (when culture became Cool Britannia during Blairism), a playhouse staple was the “English sex ­comedy”, featuring couples complicated by adultery and class clash.

The guvnor of the genre was Ray Cooney (Not Now, Darling, Run for Your Wife), who inspired other writers such as Robin Hawdon, whose The Mating Game played for 18 months in London. A lesser runner from the Hawdon stable – Don’t Rock the Boat, premiered in 1992 – is now revived (until 6 September) at the idyllic Berkshire restaurant-theatre, the Mill at Sonning, which has redone numerous Cooneys.

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