Never too late for love

THE Mill at Sonning will be starting the new year with a feelgood show about how it’s never too late to start over.

Jill Hyem’s play We’ll Always Have Paris looks at three women of a certain age, who are all drawn towards a life in the French capital of love.

Nancy has recently retired from her job as a headmistress and is settling in Paris while relishing her newfound freedom.

Anna is a widow who spent years nursing a sick husband while divorcee Raquel is trying to remain youthful — and looking for a
toyboy.

Nancy’s apartment has a few plumbing problems and she calls on landlady Madam Boussiron and an actor-turned-handyman called Charlot to assist.

Then the sparks really start to fly...

Hyem, an actress turned writer who died in 2015, aged 78, took the name of the play from a poignant line in Casablanca.

The show will be directed by the Mill’s managing and artistic director Sally Hughes. She says: “I’m very excited but a little bit nervous because I haven’t directed for a few years.

“I would always direct one or two plays a year but I haven’t directed for about six years now. I’m doing all my homework.”

Hyem wrote extensively with a special focus on roles for women.

Sally says: “Jill was no slouch as a writer — she wrote series like Tenko, Howards’ Way and House of Eliott. Sadly, she’s no longer with us.

“We’ll Always Have Paris is a lovely play about three school friends in their mid-sixties who meet up in Paris.

“The play is warm and funny and it makes you think about what you’re going to do, how you approach your third age and that there’s still life, a very exciting life, to be had.”

Lizzie Elvin plays Nancy, Natalie Ogle is Anna and Debbie Arnold portrays Raquel.

“It’s a lovely cast,” says Sally. “Lizzie is a Mill regular, Natalie, who is married to Clive Francis, is a very good actress and Debbie has been in Corrie and every other soap that you can think of.”

Basienka Blake will play the dragon-like landlady while Richard Keep will play Charlot.

Sally herself divides her time between Sonning and her home in Chiswick, which she shares with her husband, Canadian film director Alvin Rakoff, who is known for A Voyage Round My Father (written by the late John Mortimer, who lived at Turville Heath) and Paradise Postponed, among other productions.

She cherishes her role at the dinner theatre, which was founded by her parents, Tim and Eileen Richards, in 1978.

Sally’s son, Adam, 38, went to Reading Blue Coat School and is now a film producer who lives in London.

However, she was thrilled to discover recently that he also appreciates the significance of the family business.

She says: “Funnily enough, for the first time this year, he expressed an interest in taking over the Mill — not right now, obviously, as I’m not ready to give up yet — but to continue it, which is fantastic.

“You get to a point and you think, ‘Well, if there’s no one to step in...’

“Adam has never been interested before but he now has a family and I’ve got grandchildren.

“He realises that it’s such a fantastic place and it’s a wonderful legacy, which he can continue.”

• We’ll Always Have Paris is at the Mill at Sonning from Thursday, January 19 to Saturday, March 11. For more details and to buy tickets, call 0118 969 8000 or visit
millatsonning.com