A Long-Term Limited Annual Affair Reviewed by Mary Alderson Remember the 1978 movie Same Time, Next Year, with Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn? It was a fun movie, lots of laughs with several touching moments. It received four Academy Award and four Golden Globe nominations, with Ellen Burstyn winning a Golden Globe. But did you know that before it hit the big screen, it was a stage play and ran on Broadway in 1975, where Ellen Burstyn won a Tony award. Her co-star was Charles Grodin. I have been a life-long avid theatre-goer, a theatre reviewer for 22 years, and a fan of the Same Time, Next Year movie. But surprisingly I have never seen the play on stage until now! I read that it is the most produced two-hander (meaning only two characters) in Canada. Maybe there aren’t that many two-handers presented. For comparison purposes, I have seen the one-hander, Shirley Valentine, five times. But I still can’t figure out why I haven’t seen Same Time, Next Year. Fortunately, it is currently running at the beautiful outdoor Grove Theatre in Fenelon Falls, giving me the chance to see this funny, sweet play. It closely follows the movie telling the same great story. What makes it even better is the cast: Gabi Epstein and Jeremy Lapalme are excellent in the roles, and it’s especially fun when you know that they are a married couple in real life. The pair are hilarious in The Grove’s Spamalot, with the two shows on stage on different dates. And as if they didn’t have enough lines to learn for Spamalot, there is so much dialogue to learn in Same Time, Next Year.  As true professional actors, they are handling it in stride. If you aren’t familiar with the movie or the play, the story ...