Don’t Rock The Boat ★★★ The Mill at Sonning | Jul 10 - Sep 6, 2025


The Mill at Sonning remains, perhaps, the best theatrical value around London. With an excellent meal and a usually strong production, its price of around £80 is a bargain that's hard to beat. While the lunch or dinner is always both tasty and hearty, the entertainment is usually suitably light. That is not the case with the venue's latest offering of Robin Hawdon's 1992 play, Don't Rock The Boat. Although ostensibly a comedy, the play presents a disturbingly dark view of human nature and local politics. When an irascible and manipulative property developer invites a local official and his family aboard the developer's pleasure boat, The Bunty, for a weekend getaway things go amusingly awry. But, beneath the plentiful laughter, we are confronted by a portrait of petty corruption and hypocrisy that is most unedifying and apparently irredeemable. In fact, none of these characters has much to recommend them, and it is easy to lose sympathy with both them and their dilemmas. The bullying, amoral developer, who is masterfully interpreted by Steven Pinder, is a totally repellent individual, while his doormat wife, played by Melanie Gutteridge, quickly exhausts our sympathy. Harry Gostelow does a fine job of portraying the bumbling and pompous hypocrite of a local nabob, but this is a stock character which is as familiar as that of the passionate, unfulfilled wife, flawlessly executed by Rachel Fielding. The fact that at the play's conclusion, both women simply continue in their oppressive relationships is as disturbing as the overall view of society which Hawdon presents. This weekend of mutiny on The Bunty is an unnerving exposé of human venality and folly that is only made palatable by the play's humour, its formidable cast, and the strong production. Kudos also to Jackie Hutson for her imaginative set. The detailed creation of the ship and its environs is simply a delight. And, as always, the extraordinary hospitality and delightful ambience of The Mill at Sonning make this theatrical excursion from the metropolis a trip worth taking.

Rated: ★★★

Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Pamela Raith

When, Where, Getting there:
Map & Location: Sonning Eye, Reading RG4 6TY, UK

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