Summer of the Seventeenth Doll

Links including video links for Summer of the Seventeenth Doll.




Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is a pioneering Australian play written by Ray Lawler and first performed at the Union Theatre in Melbourne on 28 November 1955.
The play is almost unanimously considered by scholars of literature to be the most historically significant in Australian theatre history, openly and authentically portraying distinctly Australian life and characters. It was one of the first truly naturalistic "Australian" theatre productions.

Original cast:
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll had its world premiere at the Union Theatre in Melbourne, Australia. This production of the play was directed by John Sumner and featured the following cast:

Roma Johnston as Pearl Cunningham
Fenella Maguire as Kathy "Bubba" Ryan
June Jago as Olive Leech
Ray Lawler as Barney Ibbot
Carmel Dunn as Emma Leech
Noel Ferrier as Roo Webber
Malcolm Billings as Johnnie Dowd

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll QTC

QTC cast - Steve Le Marquand, Robyn Nevin, Helen Thomson, Alison Whyte, Travis McMahon, Eloise Winestock.


"The play written in 1955, provided a significant spotlight for Australian theatre in international terms. For the first time, an Australian play drew serious attention from overseas observers and critics as an important piece of theatre writing. The play has been described by some as a well-written, superbly constructed piece of work. Its use of realistic props, stage business, its fine balance of text and sub-text, its grasp of rhythms of the spoken Australian language and its use of space and lighting was superior to that of earlier plays.

Holloway (1981) describes the play as a combination of melodrama and humour - significant elements of the dominant earlier style of playwriting. Indeed, there is an interesting mixture of joviality and lightheartedness contrasted against heightened tragic emotion - in particular the closing scene is a powerful example of melodrama where Olive refusing the marriage proposal from Roo drags herself out of the room. Roo, devastated by the end of a dream, numbly sits with his face in his hands, a beaten and disspirited figure." Source.

Links:
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll
A Lucky Play