Same Time, Next Year

Playwright: Bernard Slade

Director: Diana Leblanc

Place of Performance: Segal Centre, Montreal

List of Characters/Actors:

Doris : Michelle Giroux

George : R. H. Thomson

               Yearly adultery. Awkward conversations. Evolution of men and women through the 1950s – 1970s, both politically and socially, presented in a romantic comedy with intense and sometimes dark subject material. Same Time Next Year is not the typical romantic comedy I expected, the questioning or morals and empathy felt for these characters caused a conflict of emotions as the audience debated if meeting someone every year, for 20 years, to cheat on their spouses was considered romantic or outrageously deceitful.

                Yet the story cannot be simply divided into two categories, romantic or adultery. Doris (Michelle Giroux) and George (R. H. Thomson) embrace the fact they have children and share stories and exchange pictures, creating a strange sensation of two close friends catching up and finding comfort from their hectic lives within each other, liberating the chains of their family for one weekend a year. The secret yearly meetings acknowledge that we play many roles in our lifetime, mother, father, wife, husband but what we crave most is the freedom to be ourselves, break free from responsibility and talk to someone who understands. It could be argued that the reason these characters stayed happily married to their partners was due to the fact they were able to have one weekend a year to let loose, developing a love and respect for one another, yet the love and devotion for their own families is unquestionable.