The Mill at Sonning - the former flour mill now tastefully converted to a theatre and restaurant - opened its new season last week in glorious, laugh-a-minute style with the bedroom farce Same Time Next Year by the American playwright Bernard Slade.

This play - which ran on Broadway for four years - focuses on lovebirds George and Doris, who meet by accident at a Northern California inn in 1951, and continue to meet at the same time and place every year (despite the fact that both are already married).

The action picks up their secret assignations at four- and five-year intervals over a 24-year period, and the couple's tradition of telling each other good and bad points about their respective spouses each year is an ingenious device for charting their changing circumstances and the subtle changes in their relationship.

The laughs come thick and fast with some wonderful one-liners: "I was a virgin when I got married, except when I was pregnant, but I don't count that," says Doris ingenuously at one point. But there is pathos too, as George struggles with his guilt and insecurities, and Doris agonises over her love for two men.

This is perhaps not one for the prudish; the two actors appear in various states of undress, sex is a dominant theme throughout (including use of the "f" word) and there is a fairly graphic build-up to a premature birth. But it is funny, intriguing and compelling - and it doesn't end as you'd expect.

"It's obvious where it's heading," I commented to my husband in the interval. I was wrong.

The roles of George and Doris are convincingly and engagingly played by Steven Pacey and Shona Lindsay (pictured), while director Alvin Rakoff ensures a slick pace that sustains the momentum throughout. Well worth catching if you can.

Same Time Next Year continues at the Mill at Sonning until February 17. Tickets cost £37.50 and include a pre-performance meal served in the theatre's attractive restaurant. Box office: 0118 969 800.