A NOSTALGIC trip through worldwide events between 1951 and 1974 is at the heart of comedy Same Time, Next Year which opens the new Company of Ten season at the Abbey Theatre in St Albans.

Written by Bernard Slade it is about two people deeply in love whose circumstances dictate that they meet only once a year at the hotel which saw their first encounter.

Their relationship covers two decades but the audience meets them at five-year intervals. During the intervening years, world events and their personal circumstances dictate inevitable changes in them so unexpected situations arise, sparks fly and there is plenty of drama. The constant factor however is their unchanging love for each other.

Same Time, Next Year ran for four years on Broadway and was made into a successful film starring Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn.

Images and music span the 25 years of the story including the famous, the infamous and the almost forgotten icons of the quarter century in which the play is set.

Same Time, Next Year runs on the main stage of the Abbey Theatre from next Friday, September 16, until Saturday, September 24. Tickets are available from the box office on 01727 857861 or online at www.abbeytheatre.org.uk