NWTC looks at ‘Summer of the Seventeenth Doll’
18/06/2017

An oldie but a goody

Would you like to brighten up your Sunday afternoon by reading a truly authentic Australian play?

Well, come along to the next North West Theatre Company (NWTC) play reading.

The play chosen for June is “Summer of the Seventeenth Doll”, a pioneering Australian play written by Ray Lawler and fist performed in Melbourne in 1955.

This play is considered to be the most historically significant play in Australian theatre history. Ray Lawler openly and authentically portrays the distinctly Australian life and characters. – One of the first truly naturalistic Australian theatre productions.

“Summer of the Seventeenth Doll”, tells the story of two Queensland sugar cane cutters, Barney and Roo, who for 16 years have travelled south to Melbourne for five months of frivolity and celebration with two city women, Olive and Nancy.

Each year Roo brings with him a gift for Olive – A kewpie doll.

One of the women, Nancy has married a few months previously. So in her place Olive has invited Pearl to partake in the tradition.

But this summer – the seventeenth summer – things have changed.

The play premiered in London in 1957 and was a big hit. Film rights were purchased and an Australian – British film directed by Leslie Norman was released in 1959, it starred Ernest Borgnine, Ann Baxter, Angela Lansbury and John Mills.

Sound like a good read? It is; lots of meaty characters to get stuck into. Perhaps you enjoyed the NWTC production of ‘The 39 Steps’ and thought “I would like to have a go at doing something like that”

So! Come along and join all the other fellow thespians who also enjoy “having a go”, on Sunday June 18th, 2.00pm (during the colder months), upstairs in the Conference room of the Roxy Theatre.