BWW Reviews: Nostalgic SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR at Berkshire Theatre Group

SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR begins in 1950 and charts the relationship of two lovers, Doris and George who meet once a year for 25 years for an extra-marital love affair. While undeniably sexual, the relationship was also much more than that, it is also the reunion of two old friends. In between these trysts, they neither see nor communicate with each other, reverting to their regular lives, marriages, spouses and children.

The play uses six of these visits, about five years apart to delineate the changes happening in American culture. It ends in 1975, a pivotal point in the transition between the old ways of communitarianism and the new individualism. No play has been better at capturing the ferment leading to the "me decade". And while it is a wonderful touchstone of the mid 20th Century, when its treatment of unconventional love and contemporary life was new, the play can sometimes seem quite dated. Even these scenes however are capable of stirring up old memories, and there is a genuine simplicity to the storyline which is refreshing in these complicated times.

"You can tell the time has changed, honey, because the bed covers are different," noted one nearby theatre-goer to her husband. And indeed, the changing of the bedcovers by a trio of maids and a housekeeper was accomplished with some clever choreography and funny business by director Kyle Fabel. He also kept the actors onstage busy pouring coffee, making drinks, getting dressed and undressed, or playing the piano, dashing into the bathroom, and at one point, diving out a window.

SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR. is the most successful play by Bernard Slade, best known as the creator of The Flying Nun and The Partridge Family on television. Slade has a winning way with situations and comedy, as might be expected. Slade began his career as an actor with the Garden Center Theater in Vineland, Ontario. In the mid-1960s, he relocated to Hollywood where he had great success, and finally got to Broadway a decade later.

The roles of Doris (Corinna May) and George (David Adkins) are tailor made for a continuing series, and in fact the playwright penned Same Time, Another Year to continue the story into the last quarter of the century. While the original Broadway production with Ellen Burstein and Charles Grodin achieved 1,453 perfromances, the second chalked up far less, about 200.

Corinna May and David Adkins are husband and wife in real life, and this contributes greatly to the apparent comfort they have with each other on stage, as friends who pick up right where they left off even if months or years have flown by. With a huge bed in the middle of Randall Persons attractive arts and craft bungalow, it is the focal point of the setting, yet the talk is more about the changes in the two characters than what happens between the sheets. May and Adkins brilliantly accomplish the daunting task of changing personalities and attitudes with the passage of years, she from a nervous wife cheating on her husband to a hippie, or a businesswoman and he from an accountant to a hilarous California-mellowed man to, finally, a widower.

As times passes, so does the focus of the conversations, from talk of the children and the tooth fairy to talk of the grandchildren and the terrible things that can befall a family.

SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR was considered pretty contemporary when it first played on Broadway and became a movie, but so much has happened in the years since that it is now a safe, summer straw-hat circuit play that is performed more frequently than most of the old chestnuts. It is the sort of play - think Neil Simon - that summer visitors want. Not too challenging, no upsetting politics, just something to do while they are on vacation. Like a summer novel, it has a solid enough premise to keep you amused, and then send you on your way. It has the same sort of comic dialogue, moments of tenderness, and romantic notions that most people strive for in their own lives. If this sounds like you, then this is unquestionably the perfect play to see.

Berkshire Theatre Group presents SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR by Bernard Slade, Directed by Kyle Fabel, Sets by Randall Parsons, Costumes by Charles Schoonmaker, LIghts by Paul Hackenmueller. Doris - Corinna May; George - David Adkins. Two hours with one 15 minute intermission. July 23-August 10, 2-13. Fitzpatrick Main Stage, East Main Street, Stockbridge, MA BerkshireTheatreGroup.org 413.997.4444

Photo: Chris Frisina