Stage Review - Same Time, Next Year (Heart Repertory Theatre)

Stage Review - Same Time, Next Year
Presented By: Heart Repertory Theatre - Woodinville , WA
Show Run: May 23 - June 08, 2025
Date Reviewed: Friday, May 23, 2025 (Opening Night)
Run Time: 2 Hours, 15 Minutes (including a 15 minute intermission)
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman

I recall seeing the film Same Time, Next Year when I was younger, much younger, and though I’ve only seen it that one time, it’s the rare film that has had a lasting impact on me. It’s enigmatic in a way, I know I didn’t see it when it was new, I wouldn’t have even been 10 years old yet when the 1978 film starring Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn released in theaters, plus I recall watching it on television, so that part is a mystery, just as why the film has stuck with me for so long. I often use the film as an exhibit when I’m discussing how, in the context of the varied kinds of love that exist, nobody can be everything to everyone, and how filling those gaps can take on different forms. Plus, I believe we all have a capacity to love that is much greater than that which we actually use. So, it seems strange that a film that is, on the surface, about an adulterous relationship in which a man and woman meet by chance, engage in a tryst, and then agree to meet every year at the same time in the same place to continue the their affair, despite the fact that they’re not only married, but between them have six children, would be something as enlightening as it is, or that it could be used (as I have used it) as an example of the dynamic nature of love. It turns out that I’m not the only one with this opinion though. In the directors’ notes for the Heart Repertory Theatre production of Same Time, Next Year (a play before it was a film, premiering in 1975 on Broadway) which runs through June 8 at the Sammamish Valley Grange in Woodinville, Director Jane Ryan shares a similar viewpoint to mine, which must be more common than not if the staying power of the piece is any indication. The story, for me, is about our capacity as humans to love, and the many kinds of love that exist, but it’s also about the commitments and sacrifices that we make in the name of this love, and in seeing this all play out on opening night this past Friday, I was reminded why it has stayed with me for so long, as this production captures all of the emotional impact that I recall from seeing the film for the first time. It’s creative in its production and beautiful in its acting, and it’s the kind of play that lives with you well after you leave it.

The story itself follows George, and accountant from New Jersey, and Susan, a housewife from Oakland, who meet over dinner at a Northern California Inn, where George has a standing reservation each year. As the play begins, the two find themselves in bed together, both affected to a different degree, George nervous and full of guilt, Susan a little more matter of fact. This is the first of six scenes set five years apart and beginning in 1951, and it’s where the audience learns about each of these characters and their backstories, spouses Helen and Harry, that Harry thinks Doris is attending a religious retreat, and that George’s wife Helen probably already knows that he’s cheated on her through some magical ESP. Despite their guilt and the possible repercussions of what has happened between them, they agree to meet back at the same inn for the same weekend, and while neither was sure they would see each other again, they both do return and pick up where they left off. The beauty in the construction of the play is how by jumping five years between scenes, the audience gets to see how the characters grow, together and, in some ways, apart, and how the social and political climate of the times affect their personalities and the relationship they share. Five years is enough of a gap to show these changes, but not too much to preclude the continuity between scenes. The one thing that doesn’t change is the Inn itself, and just like in the film and original stage play, scene changes in the Heart Repertory production are accompanied by videos of the time in which the next scene takes place. Here, Jane and her team, including Artistic Director Hjalmer Anderson, opt for news clippings from each year that accompanies a scene, 1951, 1956, 1961, 1965, 1970, and 1975. The videos provide a good context for some of what is shown in the scenes themselves, from Laurel White’s costumes, which creatively and accurately reflect the time period, or the language the characters speak with to each other. There’s a lot that happens in America between 1951 and 1975, and Laurel has a good grasp of the wardrobes that go along with those changes. The set itself, George’s room at the inn, as I said is largely static over the time period of the show, but especially considering the space, it’s a nice reproduction of what genuinely feels like a suite, complete with bed, end tables, small dining table and chairs, fireplace, and with the added touch of a piano. The set provides an excellent backdrop for the telling of this story, and allows the actors, BJ Smyth as George and Erin Michele Gabbard as Doris, to feature prominently, which is exactly what it needs to do here, support the actors’ storytelling. It’s simple and very well done, though the only area of improvement I will call out would be around those scene changes, which were a bit choppy on opening night. A smoother transition from the videos to period music, and then to the lights coming up on the actors would help that continuity.

This has to be a fun show to perform as an actor. I say that because as George and Doris, BJ and Erin play the same person, sure, but they each play ostensibly six versions of themselves, versions that are sometimes in sync with each other and other times not. And over the twenty-five years of their relationship that are presented in Same Time, Next Year, the two go through very human metamorphoses in their characters, but their relationship also ages and deepens. Though it’s not shown, it’s clear that their marriages also have their own ups and downs, but the pair even help each other through those, and while at first, the two, especially George, isn’t keen on talking about Harry or Doris’ personal life, it’s only when the couple becomes comfortable with their marriages and talking about them that they begin to take flight themselves. It’s this relationship that makes them better spouses, and their marriages that make them appreciate what they’ve found in each other. Knowing that is one thing, but what BJ and Erin are able to do is make the audience feel it, and they each bring such a humanity to their characters that, regardless of the fact that what they’re doing is at the very least in a moral gray area, make them exceedingly likable.

This couple, like every other one out there, have moments of joy and sadness, and all of these are presented here. BJ, in his characterization of George, is the nervous type, extremely guilty, not just at the beginning, but in a moment when his daughter calls the room, and as an actor, BJ can be funny in one moment and turn fearful the next, almost to a manic degree. But this particular scene, in which George’s guilt hits its highest point, allows playwright Bernard Slade to examine the differences in how we handle things like guilt, exploring how external George’s is, contrasting that with how Doris more internalizes it, but it’s no less impactful to her than his is. In another scene opening, when George is ready to meet Doris during one of their weekends together in nothing but a robe and she walks in pregnant, it’s another case where BJ’s humorous moment is shattered by a different reality. Doris, though, is the one who supports George in just about every scene. When his daughter calls, Doris calms him, when he panics about her pregnancy and not being able to begin their weekend in the usual way, it’s Doris who suggests that they find other ways to connect, and when George turns up in the 1970s angry and more conservative in dress and viewpoint than he was in previous years, it’s Doris that gets to the bottom of the sadness that lies beneath the anger and offers him a shoulder, though at that particular point, they seem as far apart emotionally as they ever could be. It’s these things that make their love enduring, but it also shows how strong of a character Doris is, and how versatile of an actor Erin is, playing each character wonderfully, but also understanding the tenderness that it takes to pull George down back from the brink, which is, again, different in each scenario. For BJ’s side, it’s that scene in the 1970s, when Doris comes in dressed like a hippie (kudos again here to Laurel and her costuming) and he’s well on the right side of center that is the high water mark for him in this play. It’s a wonderful piece of acting, from both quite frankly, to be softened enough by Erin’s Doris to come out with the underlying cause of his anger, and when his George is finally able to open up, BJ is phenomenal. There’s so much to like about their performances in a general sense as well, from how they both are able to act older very well, how they grasp the vernacular of the particular scene/year they’re in, or how they work together, with an ease that helps sell this love story.

Same Time, Next Year is a bit of an enigma. On the one hand, it’s a story about an adulterous affair that goes on for over twenty-five years, but on the other, it’s a piece that will make you believe in love perhaps even more than you did before seeing it. The story of two lovers who meet one night at dinner in 1951 and then continue their relationship every year on the same weekend at the same inn is about how love perseveres through the years and the changes that come with the living of our human lives. It’s a story that understands we cannot be everything to everyone and how finding what we need to fill those gaps might just make all of our relationships better. BJ Smyth and Erin Michele Gabbard grapple with the emotional roller coaster that is this couple’s relationship, and not only bring out the hearts and souls of whom they portray on stage, but help their characters find a lasting and committed love along the way.

Same Time, Next Year, the latest production from Heart Repertory Theatre, runs on stage at the Sammamish Grange through June 8. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://www.heartrep.org/.

Photo credit: Sandro Menzel