Summer of the Seventeenth Doll
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Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is a pioneering Australian play written by Ray Lawler and first performed at the Union Theatre in Melbourne, Australia, 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.
Plot
The play is set in Australia, in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton and it details the events of the summer of 1953, in the lives of six central characters. The structure of the play is such that the nature of these characters and their situation and history is not revealed immediately, but rather gradually established as the story unfolds. By the end, the story and all its facets have been indirectly explained.
The summer that the story spans marks the seventeenth year of an annual tradition in the lives of the characters, wherein two masculine sugarcane cutters, Arthur "Barney" Ibbot and Reuben "Roo" Webber, travel south to Melbourne for five months of frivolity and celebration with two city women, Olive Leech and Nancy (bringing with them as a gift a kewpie doll, hence the name). One of the women, Nancy, has apparently gotten married just months ago, and she is not present in the play, so in her place Olive has invited Pearl Cunningham to partake in the tradition. The other women present in the play are Kathie "Bubba" Ryan, a 22-year old girl who has been coveting Olive and Nancy's lifestyle from her neighbouring house almost all her life, and Emma Leech, Olive's cynical, irritable but wise mother. Olive was always a feisty child and whenever she is performing she is nothing but aggressive to her audience members.
As the play progresses, it becomes obvious that, for many collective reasons, this summer is different to others; it is full of tensions, strains to recreate lost youth and, from what is said of previous years, not a fraction of the fun that others have been. Steadily things become worse; Roo is revealed to be broke and unemployed, disillusioned with his age and weaknesses, while relations between him and Barney are in doubt, due to a recent question of loyalty. The situation is agitated in part by Pearl's uptight indignation and refusal to accept the lifestyle she is being presented with as "proper" or "decent".
The play ends with a bitter fight between Olive and Roo after he proposes marriage to her and she is affronted, threatened by the prospect of any lifestyle other than the one to which she is accustomed. In the final scene, the two men leave together, the summer prematurely ended and the characters' futures uncertain.
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is part of a trilogy generally referred to as the Doll Trilogy; the story of The Doll is preceded by the prequels Kid Stakes (1975), set in 1937, when the characters of The Doll are young adults, and Other Times (1976), which is set in 1945 and includes most of the same characters.
Productions
Melbourne
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll made its world premiere on 28 November 1955, where it opened at the Russell Street 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
Sydney
The play opened in Sydney, Australia, approximately two months later, on 10 January 1956, this time with a different cast:
- Madge Ryan as Pearl Cunningham
- Fenella Maguire as Kathie "Bubba" Ryan
- June Jago as Olive Leech
- Ray Lawler as Barney Ibbot
- Ethel Gabriel as Emma Leech
- Lloyd Berrell as Roo Webber
- John Llewellyn as Johnnie Dowd
Country tour
On 28 January 1956 a thirteen-week country tour of the play was announced, commencing on 14 February. The play toured New South Wales and Queensland, returning to Sydney for an encore season, and featured the following cast:
- Yvonne Lewis as Bubba Ryan
- Jacqueline Kott as Pearl Cunningham
- June Jago as Olive Leech
- Robert Levis as Barney Ibbot
- Ethel Gabriel as Emma Leech
- Kenneth Warren as Roo Webber
- Keith Buckley as Johnnie Dowd
United Kingdom
After the final Sydney show of the play's country tour, The Doll moved to the United Kingdom, where it spent two weeks showing in Nottingham, Liverpool and Edinburgh before opening in London on 30 April 1957, with the following cast:
- Fenella Maguire as Bubba Ryan
- Madge Ryan as Pearl Cunningham
- June Jago as Olive Leech
- Ray Lawler as Barney Ibbot
- Ethel Gabriel as Emma Leech
- Kenneth Warren as Roo Webber
- Richard Pratt as Johnnie Dowd
New York
Encouraged by its more-than-warm reception in Australia and Britain, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll took a trip to America, where audiences and critics were, most likely due to drastic cultural differences, rather underwhelmed with the production. The play opened in New York City on 23 January 1958, with no changes made to the cast. The Doll only ran a five-week season in America.
Film adaptation
After continuing to tour Australia through 1958, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll was adapted by Les Norman for Hill-Hecht-Lancaster Productions – whose first film had been Marty with Ernest Borgnine – for United Artists in 1959. The film was retitled Season of Passion for the American market.[1] This decision was severely lamented by some fans of the play, whose complaints were rooted in three essential criticisms:
- The "Americanization" of the text, namely the casting of American actor Ernest Borgnine, who played his character (Roo) with an American accent. Others have thought the film was a recruiting film for migrants with the Englishman John Mills as Barney and Alan Garcia as Dino, an Italian friend and fellow cane cutter who does not feature in the play. The female leads were played by Anne Baxter and Angela Lansbury, though the film featured many Australian actors.
- It was filmed in Sydney rather than Melbourne and displayed the characters enjoying themselves overlooking Bondi Beach and Luna Park Sydney rather than moping around dreary Melbourne.
- The drastic changes to key plot points, namely the alternate, "happy" ending that the 1959 film adaptation entailed. This alternate ending was considered by some to be representative of a dire misunderstanding of the play and its message, and by others an attempt to make the film an international success at the box office and critical acclaim similar to the kitchen sink realism of Marty. The producers also added a comedy sequence where a young girl attempted to trick Roo in a tent at Luna Park.
Most recent productions
- 1965: Sydney's Q Theatre stages a production of The Doll, one in which Ethel Gabriel, a member of the cast for nearly a decade, gave her last performance as Emma
- 1973: The Nimrod Theatre stages a production
- 1974: The Queensland Theatre Company stages a production
- 1977: The Melbourne Theatre Company revives the play as part of The Doll Trilogy (featuring prequels Kid Stakes and Other Times)
- 1988: Queensland's La-Boite Theatre Company stages play in August directed by Don Batchelor.
- 2006: M. Sheehy directs stage production of The Doll at the Glenbrook Theatre, Glenbrook
- 2007: T. van Oyen directs stage production of Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll at Brookman Street Theatre, Kalgoorlie
- 2008: The play is staged in May by Queensland's La Boite Theatre Company.
- 2009: Summer of the Seventeenth Doll produced at Sydney's New Theatre