Ray Lawler’s classic play SUMMER OF THE SEVENTEENTH DOLL was first performed at the Union Theatre in Melbourne on the 28th November 1955. The play is considered to be the most significant in Australian theatre history, and a “turning point”, openly and authentically portraying distinctly Australian life and characters. It was one of the first truly naturalistic Australian theatre production.
The play is set in Australia, in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton, in the summer of 1953. Barnie and Roo have just returned from Queensland, where they have been working as sugar cane cutters. This is the period of “the layover”, five months of sex and fun which they traditionally share with two city women, named Olive and Nancy. This has been the pattern of the past seventeen years. As always, Roo has brought Olive a kewpie doll as a present – hence the title of the play. This is the summer of the seventeenth doll.
But things have changed. Nancy has married, so Olive has invited Pearl Cunningham – a rather hoity-toity woman – to take over as Barnie’s date. And she makes the working-class Barnie feel that he is not good enough for her.
Also on the scene are Kathie “Bubba” Ryan, a 22-year-old girl who has been coveting Olive and Nancy’s risqué lifestyle from her neighbouring house almost all her life, and Emma Leech, Olive’s cynical, irritable, but wise mother.
As the play progresses, it becomes obvious that this summer is full of tensions.
Ray Lawler’s SUMMER OF THE SEVENTEENTH DOLL, directed by Tom Richards, is playing the Arts Theatre Cronulla until the 22nd March 2o25. Performances are Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sunday 23 February and 16 March 2o25 at 2pm.
