Same Time, Next Year

by Bernard Slade
Directed by Gina Kelly

Performed at the Kulturzentrum Brotfabrik
8, 10 – 12 May, 2018

Same Time, Next Year is a romantic comedy written by Canadian playwright and screenwriter Bernard Slade. The plot focuses on two people, New Jersey accountant George Peters and Oakland housewife Doris, who meet by chance in a San Francisco inn on the evening of Saturday 10th February 1951. There is an instant rapport and, following their one-night stand (and despite the fact they are both married to other people and have six children between them), they agree to continue their affair… but only meeting once a year — on the same day — at the same place.

Over the course of the next 24 years, they develop an emotional intimacy deeper than one would expect to find between two people meeting for a clandestine relationship just once a year. During the time they spend with each other, they discuss the births, deaths, and marital problems each is experiencing at home.

This gentle romantic comedy also reflects the wider political and social changes over the period, from the early 1950s, through the turbulent 1960s and into the 1970s, as George and Doris adapt to the associated personal changes affecting their lives and ultimately their unique relationship.