I’ve seen many productions of Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll over the years, and at one point even built an entire NIDA application around an imaginary staging of “The Doll.” It’s a play I know intimately. Watching Red Stitch’s new production, I wasn’t just revisiting an old theatre piece; I was returning to a story that shaped my understanding of what makes good theatre.
Set in a Carlton terrace house in Melbourne during the summer of 1953, the play follows cane-cutters Roo (Ben Prendergast) and Barney as they return for their seventeenth “lay-off” season, a ritual shared with Olive and Nancy that once promised romance without commitment and celebration. But old Father Time has shifted, Nancy has gone off and got married, and the world they built together begins to crack. The Doll’s themes — aging, masculinity, mateship, and the painful erosion of dreams — still resonate strongly today.
Red Stitch is a small theatre that impresses, and their production of The Doll is no exception. It skillfully balances melodrama and emotion, mostly succeeding despite its modest setting. The performance keeps a cracking pace, never letting the emotional tension sag. Ella Caldwell’s direction is assured and confident, and Jacob Battista’s set design does exactly what it needs to: it drops us back into an Australia that feels simpler, more naive— before even black‑and‑white television — without tipping into nostalgia for its own sake.
The performances are uniformly strong, but a shoutout to John Leary as Barney — infectious, infuriating, impossible to ignore — who steals several early stage moments. Yet The Doll is such a well-crafted piece that every character eventually gets their time to shine. Ngaire Dawn Fair and Emily Goddard as Olive and Pearl are both excellent, with Olive emerging as the play’s almost tragic heroine. All the actors are in tune with the play’s emotional heartbeat and aren’t afraid to let its rough edges show; crucially, the entire production team understands the legacy of the playwright’s work — respecting it and adding to it.
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll premiered in 1955 and is widely regarded as the moment Australian theatre found its voice. Before The Doll, local stages were dominated by British imports; Lawler’s play, with its unapologetic Australian slang and working-class setting, and characters destroyed by time, broke that stranglehold. It went on to tour internationally, including a successful season in London’s West End.
Its legacy is that every new production, including this Red Stitch production, is a chance to rediscover its history, beauty, power, and brilliance. Summer of the Seventeenth Doll reminds us why Australian stories matter. Well done to everyone involved in this latest production of this Aussie classic.
Harlequin ink 
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