SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR Will Embark on UK Tour Beginning This Month

London Classic Theatre today announce a new UK tour of Bernard Slade's Same Time, Next Year. Michael Cabot directs Kieran Buckeridge (George) and Sarah Kempton (Doris) in one of the world's most widely staged plays, originally produced on Broadway in 1975.

The production opens at Malvern Theatres on 26 January, before touring to Winchester, Mold, Bury St Edmunds, Ilfracombe, Bracknell, Derby, Poole and Eastbourne, concluding at New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme on 16 April 2022.

Artistic Director Michael Cabot said today "We're delighted to be starting rehearsals for this wonderful play. Same Time, Next Year is a charming, nostalgic romantic comedy from the 1970s, with a witty, engaging script. It's our first new show in two years, so it's been fantastic to be back in design and costume meetings as part of our pre-production. One of the big challenges of this play is the timeframe, which runs from 1951 to 1975, and convincingly showing the ever-changing fashions and styles as the years go by. Designer Bek Palmer has been ingenious in bringing these very different decades to life."

Doris and George meet in 1951, a chance encounter in a Californian hotel that leads to a passionate one-night stand. Both are married to other people, but, soon aware that this might be the start of something, they promise to meet 12 months later. So begins a romantic love affair that lasts 25 years.

The play charts their lives through the ups and downs of parenthood, career highs and lows as well as the shifting fashions and morals of the passing decades.

Bernard Slade paints a bittersweet, nostalgic and funny portrait of two likeable protagonists who find themselves in the most unusual of long-term relationships.

Bernard Slade was a Canadian playwright and screenwriter. As a playwright, his credits include Tribute, Romantic Comedy, Special Occasions and An Act of the Imagination. As a screenwriter, his credits include created The Flying Nun, The Partridge Family, Love on a Rooftop, Bridget Loves Bernie and The Girl with Something Extra.

Kieran Buckeridge plays George. His previous credits for London Classic Theatre include Private Lives. Other theatre credits include Swallows and Amazons (York Theatre Royal), The Prince and the Pauper, Wind in the Willows (New Vic Theatre), Up Down Man, Can't Buy Me Love, Mother Goose, Sleeping Beauty (Salisbury Playhouse), The Secret Adversary, Pinafore Swing (Watermill Theatre), Elektra, The Rivals, The History Boys, Our Country's Good, The Recruiting Officer, The Deep Blue Sea, Loot, The Woman in Black, The Good Companions, All My Sons (Theatre by the Lake), Two, Merlin (Dukes, Lancaster), Blithe Spirit, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Moonlight and Magnolias, The Mikado (Stephen Joseph Theatre), David Copperfield, Travels with my Aunt, Return to the Forbidden Planet, Dick Barton (Oldham Coliseum), and Hamlet (Nuffield Southampton Theatres). For television, his credits include Traitors, Moving On and for film, Darkest Hour.

Sarah Kempton plays Doris. Her theatre credits include Sense and Sensibility, Bold Girls (York Theatre Royal), Amy's View (Theatre Royal Windsor), Breaking the Code (English Theatre Frankfurt), Beau Jest (Vienna's English Theatre), A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Greenwich Theatre), Poultry (Arcola Theatre), Woman in the Wall (Theatre503), Alcestis (Iris Theatre) and Macbeth (Young Shakespeare Company). Her television credits include Miranda, Not Going Out, Vines and The Intern.

Michael Cabot directs and is the founder and Artistic Director of London Classic Theatre. He has directed all forty-two LCT productions since their touring debut in 2000, including Absurd Person Singular, No Man's Land, My Mother Said I Never Should, Private Lives, Hysteria, The Birthday Party, Waiting for Godot, Absent Friends, Entertaining Mr Sloane and Equus. His freelance work as director includes three recent collaborations with award-winning playwright Henry Naylor, The Collector (Arcola Theatre/UK tour), Angel and Borders (Edinburgh Festival Fringe).

Tour Dates

Malvern Theatres

26 - 29 January

Box Office: www.malvern-theatres.co.uk / 01684 892277

Theatre Royal Winchester

2 - 5 February

Press Night: Wednesday 2 February at 7.30pm

Box Office: www.theatreroyalwinchester.co.uk / 01962 840440

Theatr Clwyd

8 - 12 February

Box Office: www.theatrclwyd.com / 01352 344101

Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds

15 - 19 February

Box Office: www.theatreroyal.org / 01284 769505

The Landmark, Ilfracombe

22 - 23 February

Box Office: www.landmark-ilfracombe.com / 01271 316523

South Hill Park, Bracknell

25 - 26 February

Box Office: www.southhillpark.org.uk / 01344 484123

Derby Theatre

8 - 12 March

Box Office: www.derbytheatre.co.uk / 01332 593939

Lighthouse, Poole

25 - 26 March

Box Office: www.lighthousepoole.co.uk / 01202 280000

Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne

5 - 9 April

Box Office: www.eastbournetheatres.co.uk/venue/devonshire-park-theatre / 01323 412000

New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme

12 - 16 April

Box Office: www.newvictheatre.org.uk / 01782 717962

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