Pat Craigie (Barney) and Vanessa Wells (Olive). Photos: Supplied.
Redlands Coast Museum, always a hive of activity, has a new buzz of excitement as Theatre Redlands swings into rehearsals for its next production.
The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is an Australian classic. The last – and best known – of a trilogy, it helped give Australia an identity and a place on the world’s stages. Ray Lawler’s masterpiece is about two cane cutters’ annual romantic pilgrimage to their girlfriends in Melbourne. This year, the seventeenth, sees changes that were predictable to all but the main players.
This play is very much a product of post-war Australia, but its themes are universal; growing up and growing old, the limits of loyalty and the need to survive, and the ways we devise to escape reality.
Theatre Redlands will present The Doll – as it’s popularly known – as Redland Museum’s Queensland Day production, under the direction of Raymond Noonan.
“I feel honoured to be directing this play for the second time,” he says. “I love the play, I love its characters – those Aussie characters still exist – and I love its language. Older audience members will recognise and enjoy the Australian colloquialisms; for younger audience members it will be an education in our wonderful, home-grown vernacular.
“For all that it was written nearly 70 years ago, The Doll has certainly withstood the test of time. This is a story about feelings, relationships and commitment. It’s a drama with humour and it’s a love story – but a love story outside the usual tradition,” he says.
The cast includes well-known local actors Debbie Spearritt, Vanessa Wells, Danielle Randall and Dan Baker. In a nostalgic twist, two actors will be performing together again for the first time in more than 30 years. Pat Craigie and Jan Nary both worked for years in Sydney’s New Theatre so rehearsal breaks are bound to be peppered with episodes of; “Hey, do you remember the time that…”. Now, there’ll be another major show to add to their memory hoard.
The show will run for two weekends, from Friday, June 13 to Sunday, June 22. For more information, go to www.redlandmuseum.org.au/whats-on/events/.
