Doll Trilogy: Kid Stakes / Other Times / Summer of the Seventeenth Doll

by Ray Lawler

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0868191191
• ISBN13: 9780868191195
• Release Date: December 1987
• Publisher: Currency Press Pty Ltd
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 0.73 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (Book 2 of Doll Trilogy)

The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is the 2nd script (play) in the Doll Trilogy and on face value is about some bar maids from Melbourne and their boyfriends who are cane-cutters from Queensland. Every year, for the last seventeen years, the cane-cutters Roo and Barney have gone down to Melbourne to live with their girlfriends Olive and Nancy during the 5 months lay-off and have partied the summer away. Each year the men would bring gifts for the girls, and Roo would always bring a kewpie doll for Olive.Time has passed though and the seventeenth summer has arrived and brought with it dramatic changes. Nancy, Barney's girlfriend, has tired of the lay-offs and opted for the more secure lifestyle of marriage to be replaced for the lay-off by Olive's friend Pearl, who is also a bar maid. Roo has left cane cutting due to disputes with a younger and faster cane-cutter called Dowd, and Barney and Roo's mateship is under stress because Barney is still a cane-cutter and friends with Dowd.The changes have meant disaster for the once-exciting lay-off and for everyone involved. Barney doesn't 'hit it off' with Pearl, who is a bit of a kill-joy standing on the fence between wanting to have a good time and wanting to be seen as respectful and moral. Roo being unemployed and having no money goes out and finds a job in a paint factory for during the summer, much to the horror of Olive who saw the cane-cutters as heroes, who were different to Melbourne men. Barney invites Dowd over, and Roo is resentful and holds this against Barney, adding even more to the tension between them. "Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is a play about growing up and growing old and failing to grow up; and the study throws into relief not only the hopes and failures of a dilapidated Melbourne household, but the character of a nation,"- Katherine Brisbane. Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is one of Australia's greatest plays, one of which is closely identified with the Australian character.I personally enjoyed this play because of it's relevance to me as an Australian. That's not to say that people not in Australia wouldn't enjoy the play - it just makes it easier to identify with.If you are interested in more information about this play, for study or general interest you can email me for my Summer of the Seventeenth Doll homepage URL.