‘Binge theatre’: Summer of the Seventeenth Doll still crackles 70 years on

Classic plays often carry unhelpful baggage, and Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll has been burdened with claims that make it feel like a museum piece. Red Stitch’s revival of the play and its two prequels found instead a trilogy that still crackles with life and resonance.

“Historically, there’s been a lot of grandiose language about [these plays] being about the transformation of a nation,” says director Ella Caldwell. “It’s not actually about that. It’s about this specific family in a single lounge room, going through their big and little struggles in a specific time in Australia’s history.” Set in a Carlton boarding house in 1953, the Doll opens with barmaids Olive and Pearl waiting for Queensland canecutters Roo and Barney, who have made the annual trip south for 17 years.

The ritual of Roo bringing Olive a Kewpie doll each Christmas reaches its seventeenth and final year.

Australia, Carlton

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