Verdict: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (reviewed opening night Friday 14 February 2025).
What a gift to see this quintessential Australian play in all its exquisite glory!
Arts Theatre Cronulla have poured their heart and soul in bringing Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll to life, a bittersweet classic that has earned its place as a HSC study text.
1950s nostalgia is perfectly captured in accented pastels and wooden interiors, with a glimpse of a verandah and a staircase. The setting is a suburban household in Melbourne.
Around the living room are sixteen brightly coloured kewpie dolls, to which a seventeenth will soon be added as part of a yearly summer romance ritual. Two mates are returning from an unsuccessful sugar-cane venture up in North Queensland, where they see love as something to be expressed with reckless, almost poetic abandon. The exciting romance these fellas bring to the lives of Nancy and Olive have lasted 17 summers, but will there be another?
A sing-a-long around a piano is a pivotal scene filled with tension and heart-warming realism, planting the seed for the severance of fragile human connection that is to come.
A fitting tribute to the legacy of Ray Lawler, who passed away in 2024 at the age of 103.
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is playing at Arts Theatre Cronulla till 22 March. For tickets and showtimes, go to https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1308589
CAST
OLIVE – Ally O’Brien
BARNEY – Peter David Allison
PEARL – Rachel Lauren Baker
ROO – Gary Clark
BUBBA – Eliza Spowart
JOHNNIE – Michael Monk
EMMA – Narelle Jaeger
Production Team
Director – Tom Richards
Stage Managers – Rae Berkeley, Betty Lyon
Stagehands Kahli Newton, Dahlya Oweichi, Sadie Robinson
Set Design – Tom Richards
Lighting Design – Craig Oberg
Sound Production – Dennis Batchelor
Props & Wardrobe – Lesley Tinker
Cast Portraits – Ian Roffey
Production Photos – Port Hacking Camera Club
Set Construction – Paul Bailey, Steve Blewitt, David Chapman, Vicky Daniels, Marcele Gili, Michael Gooley, Andrew Hall, Laurie Keane, Steve Keene, Jeffrey Langton, Neil Moulang, Kahli Newton, Bill Schreiber, Neil Tinker
Lighting and Sound Technicians
Lilian Barter, Dennis Batchelor, Andrew Hall, Michele Potter, Joanne Rechberger, Ann Sayegh, Jenny Valentic, Stephanie Williams