Summer of the Seventeenth Doll

negative? This could have changed their personality, lifestyle or relationship and without it, their life could be very different. The play, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, written by Ray Lawyer and the song Changes, by David Bowie represent both positive and negative sides of change. The main characters affected and influenced by change in Summer of the Seventeenth Doll include Olive and Roo. These characters deal with both relationship and traditional change and it’s portrayed to the audience through

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll Through the development of characterisation, Lawler’s text acts as a mirror for an emerging society. Whilst the play encompasses many significant themes relevant to an Australian 1950’s society, the disillusionment of growing old is a concept which is addressed through characters Roo and Olive, who evidently find their discoveries both confronting and provocative. Lawler demonstrates reluctance to grow old through Roo, Olive’s love interest who has been consistently

that made me question the future of marriage was a pioneering play of the 1950’s by Ray Lawler, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll- a tale about unconventional relationships that don’t stand the test of time. The play, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, journey’s through a longstanding sixteen-year seasonal love life of two Queensland cane cutters with two Melbourne barmaids during their five-month summer layoff seasons. Through the character of Olive, one of the barmaids, Lawler

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, by Ray Lawler was a ‘bottling’ performance. A highly effective use of lighting, set design, props and additional sensory stimulus; were powerful tools in creating a realistic production. The skilful use of the elements of drama; human context; language, movement, mood and dramatic tension, enabled the audience to relate to the characters and plot. The development of sub-plots also added to the creation of a realistic performance, by mirroring the human condition. Through

State Theatre Company’s production of Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is set in 1950s Carlton, Melbourne and follows the summer of Olive Leech (Elena Carapetis) who for the sixteen years running has hosted Roo (Chris Pitman) and Barney (Rory Walker), two sugar cane cutters from Queensland, for a summer filled with parties, drinking and lots of fun. However this year is different Olive’s best friend and Barneys ‘girlfriend’ Nancy has gone and got married while the boys were away. Pearl

to create distinctive voices in texts in order to construct indivdiual characters and their situations.  Lawler’s play Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is considered groundbreaking for its distinctive use of Australian colloquial language and idiom and its unique depiction of Australian working class characters and experiences. The colloquial language used in the Seventeenth Doll provides context to the characters and setting of the play highlighting their personalities and the conflicts.  This is

typical characters. When we look back into the history of texts, we easily find that there are many timeless characters memorized by us. Summer of the Seventeenth Doll and On Our Selection are two classical examples indicating the legend of characters, which are meaningful and functional to the texts and bring them with readership. Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is a lasting play as it can be transposed to be as relevant today as when it was written. The play is about change and the inability for

"Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll" is a timeless play as it can be transposed to be as relevant today as when it was written. The play is definitely a tragi-comedy but more than the ideas raised in the statement the play is about change and the inability for some to deal with it, the battle between dream and reality and loyalty and mateship. It also serves as a social document of Australia in the 1950s. Lawler uses symbols, the actions of the characters, the structure of the play and mise-en-scene

address the Archaeological Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage concerning the time capsule discovered and the significance of the articles to our culture. The paraphernalia contained within the time capsule included the play ‘Summer of the Seventeenth Doll’, by Ray Lawler, which can be used to demonstrate aspects of the Australian identity which are unique to this country and are ultimately timeless. The play follows the lives of various Australian figures, including Northern Queensland

The characters in these three literary text, The Getting of Wisdom, Coonardoo and Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, all demonstrate the traditions of gender roles in the early twentieth century. The first text by Henry Richardson, The Getting of Wisdom in 1910, a Bildungsroman story of a protagonist, Laura, as she develops to gain wisdom through her boarding school life. Richardson’s work undercovers what it is to be a “proper” woman in the early twentieth century through Laura. The traditions of women