When this play arrived on the Australian scene it wowed everybody. Notes to a Belvoir Theatre production say that

Demand for the play was so strong, that in 1956, several additional companies of actors were formed, who toured the play concurrently. A huge popular success, “it was reported that people drove hundreds of kilometres and a man swam a flooded river to see it in the Northern Territory” [Philip Parsons [ed.], Companion to Theatre in Australia, Currency Press, 1995, p565].

Its UK premiere was backed by Laurence Olivier, won the Evening Standard award for best new play of the year - 1957 - and went on to a six month season. The year after, that award was won by Tennessee Williams, with whom an obvious comparison has been made.

When the play next had its US premiere, it was backed by The Theatre Guild. Lawler really impressed the heavy-weights of the theatre world. But in the US the play bombed. Lawler was pressured to take out the Australian idiom which certainly isn't the point of the play, but absolutely provides its flavour. The themes may be universal, but the play's take is Australian. Lawler, in consultation with the cast, refused to submit to this castration.

As if to prove Lawler's folly, the film version did this to it:

rest here:

https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2015/05/11/summer-of-the-seventeenth... ( )

I knew Ray Lawler when he and his family lived in Ireland, for tax reasons, in the 1970s. I remember him as a sunny fellow who dressed conventionally. He told a newspaper interviewer that he described himself as a shoe salesman if strangers asked what he did for a living. His children were in my age group.

Barry Humphries' character Dame Edna Everage had her first stage appearance at Ray Lawler's suggestion.

Lawler himself played the rascally character Barney Ibbott, in the face of whose charms women melt, in the original Australian production and in the award-winning London West End one.

This play is firmly rooted in its time, but its themes are no less immediate today - ageing, and coming of age; choosing to live one's life with some intensity or to huddle in unending drab security; the complementarity of the genders.

It's an enduring play, which was adapted into an opera and also into a Hollywood movie. The playwright has since written a pair of prequels. Australian companies continue to produce and tour this play.

It's a classic. Why wouldn't they! ( )

A classic Australian play of the 1950s, Doll is now rarely professionally produced. This is a shame, because it remains a great play - a compelling drama with flashes of humour and real human tragedy. The language still rings true and vividly evokes an Australia which has long since past.

A revival of the play forms part of Sydney's Belvoir Street Theatre 2011 program and the season has been a sell-out. Small wonder, for it is a wonderful production, with a great cast, wonderful performances, sensitive direction and a superb set. It was a joy to see it performed again. Both the play and the production will stay in my mind for a long time. ( )

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