Summer of the Seventeenth Doll

Neil Armfield directs the Belvoir production starring Robyn Nevin, Steve Le Marquand and Helen Thomson

First published on 27 Sep 2011. Updated on 19 Feb 2012.

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It's 1953 and Australia is on the move. England is no longer standing over our shoulder and Australians are starting to discover their own political opinions. The suburbs are expanding and the idealised vision of the outback pioneer is fading. As Australia changes, so too do the lives of a small group of friends.

For sixteen golden summers, cane-cutters Barney and Roo have left the fields of sunny Queensland to spend their hard-earned cash and summer layoff with Carlton barmaids Nancy and Olive, each year bringing a kewpie doll with them as a souvenir.

The boys are back for their seventeenth summer to discover that things aren’t the same. Nancy has gotten married, Olive has invited the sceptical Pearl to take her place, and Bubba is no longer the shy and innocent little girl next door. When the girls discover that Roo has lost his position as leader of the cane-cutting gang and will need to spend his summer working, it becomes obvious to all that this summer is not going to be the carefree time that they were all hoping for.

Words by Andrew Fuhrmann |

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