Bethany theater putting on 'Same Time, Next Year'
Brush off your '60s and '70s vocabulary, the Bethany Area Repertory Theater is putting on a play that is totally groovy.
"Same Time, Next Year" by Bernard Slade, is being put on at the Dicken's Parlour Theater in Millville, and follows a man and a woman who agree to meet every year at a hotel to have an affair despite the fact the two are married to other people.
"It's funny but it's also poignant," said Rusty Hesse, the director of the show. "It's a story of a couple who met on a one night stand and they decide to return to the same hotel room 26 years in a row and you get to see them in five year snippets and how their life has progressed or hasn't progressed."
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The show, which stars Jeff Martini as George and E.J Panico as Doris, spans the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s and gives the audience not only a glimpse into this couple's life but also the issues and the vocabulary of the time, said Martini.
Although the show is billed as a comedy, the entire cast and crew agreed the show is more than a comedy.
"There are comedies that are funny the whole way through, there are dramas that are dramatic the whole way through," Martini said. "What I like about this play is that it mixes both of those very, very well. It's always called an American comedy/drama."
Panico agreed, saying the show emulates real life.
"Not that people are having affairs and meeting up every year," she said, "but it shows the ups and downs of real life."
The play takes place on the same set with no changes, which is one of the aspects of the show stage director and assistant director Steve Drescher likes about it.
The stage is very intimate and getting to see the couple move in time behind the scenes, before they get onto the stage, during the five year snippets of their lives is amazing, Drescher said.
"I am enjoying working with these people in our community," he added. "The stage is so intimate."
Martini agrees, adding the intimacy of the Dickens Parlour Theater adds to the intensity.
For Panico, one of the most powerful parts of the play is watching the couple grow.
"It's a really funny play but it also shows how people grow," she said. "It shows not only how you grow with your spouse but also how the characters project themselves to the world and that's what you see through these snippets in time and I think it's very funny and poignant."
One of the most interesting parts of the play is getting to live through what their parents lived through, Hesse said.
"We remember some of the events the characters are discussing but we did not live it like our parents did," Hesse added.
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The show, like all other BART plays, goes to benefit the groups "20 by 20 initiative," that is, to provide 20 scholarships to students in the local community interested in the arts by the year 2020.
"People who come to our shows don't only get to enjoy the production but also get to contribute to the '20 by 20 initiative,' " Martini said. "People feel good about it because it's for local kids, which makes it pretty meaningful."
As for what people should do to prepare for the show, Hesse encourages the audience to brush up on their 1960s lingo.
"It's not part of everyday vocabulary," he said, "but for some members of the audience it will all come rushing back."
rghughes@dmg.gannett.com