When I was a kid I thought adultery sounded like something both grown-up and classy, and though I didn't know its actual definition, I totally looked forward to participating in this undoubtedly swank activity once I got big. Well, turns out thou art not supposed to commit-eth adultery, though that doesn't stop people from thinking about it, doing it, or writing about it. Now, in real life, it's more than a little agonizing, yet speaking strictly from a vicarious, dramatic standpoint, infidelity really does have it all: sex, longing, love, sacrifice, deceit, pain, sometimes well deserved comeuppance, and, from time to time, a happily-ever-after...whatever that may entail.

The famous plot of Bernard Slade's 1975 Drama Desk winner "Same Time, Next Year," currently treading the boards at Blackfriars Theatre, is technically rooted in the act of adultery. The play opens on an awkward morning-after in February 1951 between George (Danny Hoskins, "The Wild Party") and Doris (Jill Rittinger, "Tea At Five"), a pair of until-recent strangers currently sharing the bed aspect of a bed-and-breakfast. Both married to other people, we learn, and with six kids between them - though one initially copped to just two kids so he might seem "less married" - George is a neurotic whirlwind of a CPA now dealing with the guilt of an unfaithful dalliance, while Doris is a young, uneducated housewife who seems to be on a more even keel.

As the initial scene quickly sketches for us what makes these characters tick, as well as why two people who have cheated on their spouses would be worth our emotional time, it becomes clear that the connection between George and Doris goes far beyond the carnal.

With the action, as it were, unfolding in the same California seaside room, George and Doris tryst annually for the next 24 years, and "Same Time, Next Year" drops in on them at approximately five-year intervals to chronicle their personal evolutions against the backdrop of 20th-century social change. Director John Haldoupis sandwiches in tunes from the likes of Ben E. King, the Righteous Brothers, and ABBA to mirror the times of each scene as George and Doris carry on their extramarital affair while weathering intramarital goings-on like birth, death, careers, and aging.

Despite enjoying a deep, devoted bond that seems unaffected by time or distance, neither shies away from the realities of their respective marriages. Each shares photos of their children, as well as tales that depict their spouses in flattering and unflattering lights, which humanizes George's wife and Doris's husband for both us and them. Their precarious blend of romantic jealousy and whatever-the-cost acceptance allows our protagonists to behave in ways alternately selfish and selfless, the latter a must if you're a playwright hoping to have the audience rooting for seemingly decent characters who nonetheless cuckold their significant others once a year.

Fortunately George and Doris are drawn with truthful strokes, and the actors portraying them do superb work. The gifted Rittinger (she played Beth in Blackfriars' 2006 "Little Women") faces a bit more of a challenge as Doris, forced to undergo radical exterior changes - i.e., distracting wigs, pregnant belly - as Doris calmly morphs from sunny homemaker into steely businesswoman. But it's Hoskins who dominates here, his George a juicier, more physical part that enables him to pinball around the rumpled, warmly furnished hotel-room set anxiously proclaiming both his shame and his love (and, in one funny segment, his impotence). Hoskins also owns the big, poignant interludes, laid bare through devastating revelations that reminded me why it's far more problematic to weep at plays than at movies.

It's no fault of the Blackfriars cast and crew that a romantic comedy such as "Same Time, Next Year" hasn't aged all that well, with familiar jokes about hippies and the Me Decade eliciting knowing smiles rather than massive laughs. Haldoupis uses some perfect vintage frocks - as well as a few charming pocketbooks - to document Doris's fashion phases, and the intimacy of a two-person play really thrives in Blackfriars' cozy second-floor space. Anyone left with the desire to spend more time with two of stagedom's favorite two-timers will want to catch "Same Time, Another Year," which follows George and Doris from 1976 to 1993. Slade's sequel, written in 1996, will hit the Blackfriars stage January 31 to February 13, with both Hopkins and Rittinger reprising their roles and, hopefully, their sincere, pleasurable chemistry.

Same Time, Next Year

Through January 25

Blackfriars Theatre, 28 Lawn St

$25 | 454-1260, blackfriars.org