Same Time, Next Year at Malvern Theatres is perfect for anyone in need of a night of laughter to perk up their January. 

The play takes its audience on the journey of a 24-year affair between George and Doris, played by Kieran Buckeridge and Sarah Kempton, as they agree to meet once a year for a no-strings-attached, fun and frivolous fling.

The two actors were spectacular in their roles, their incredible chemistry made the moments of comedy brilliantly funny whilst making the moments of sadness between them all the more heartbreaking.

For me, the opening scene of the play was one of my favourites.

The awkward embarrassment that Buckeridge and Kempton shared, half-covered with bedsheets and suit jackets as they realised that they had both shattered their marriage vows the night before.

Each scene of the play takes place in a different decade, charting both their relationship and the political landscape of America from 1951 – 1975.

With every encounter, I loved the exchange of a good story and a bad story about their spouses that the two used as a way to stop themselves from feeling too guilty about their affair.

It felt so authentically humorous to hear a married couple ranting about the ways that their husband or wife irks them, but at the same time not being able to forget the reasons they love them.

The exchange of anecdotes was organic and natural, it really felt like being a room with two life-long partners catching up.

The play’s twist in the second act heard an audible gasp from the audience, cutting through the play’s light-hearted tone and bringing cold reality into the escapism of the couple’s annual getaway.

The fast-paced comedy, written by Bernard Slade, explores the bittersweet ups and downs of meeting the right person at the wrong moment in time, keeping the audience with bated breath as the secret affair unfolds.

Malvern Theatres is the first location of Same Time, Next Year’s tour, and will run until Saturday, January 29.