summer of the seventeenth doll by ray lawler

Both Barney and Nancy buy into the romance and stability that comes with married life – but neither was able to fully admit it, commit to a change in a relationship carefully curated and spent in the summer. She should be looking for a nice, stable, city man. When Roo is in financial strife, it is her, an elderly woman, who offers him a lone to help him out.Īnd yet, we are left with the idea that if Bubba (perhaps played as a rather concerningly young 22-year-old by Stone) were to follow this path, the world of cane-cutter men and bumper summers, idealising a world of Kewpie dolls and layoffs, this world would be bad for her. This independence of the female characters is also seen in Emma. She is kept for five months of the year, but in this time she is also being the keeper: even when Olive’s man is “home”, as he takes her to parties and out to shows, she still works, he lives in her house. She has her own home with her mother, she keeps her own life and job, her years punctuated in frivolity with her men, before again returning to a happy life of liberty. Olive, for her part, is happy to live a life of independence. Roo, in particular, struggles to define what makes him a “man” – both on the field, and in a woman’s home. In her place is Pearl (Helen Thompson), the widowed friend of Olive, who doesn’t quite seem sure about the arrangement at all.Īs the four try to find their feet in a new grouping, they must grapple with the ramifications of a difficult season on the field – where disagreements with a new upstart Johnnie (TJ Power) saw Roo unemployed and now out of pocket – with the replacement of a core member of the group in Melbourne, and with how society expects these couples to behave.

Fed up with the nomadic lifestyle of her man, Nancy has gone off and married she won’t be joining in the antics this summer. Five months of spending money, living the city life, partying with the women, being looked after by these women, and by Olive’s mother, Emma (Robyn Nevin), and dotting on the girl next door, Bubba (Yael Stone).īut the seventeenth year will be different. Every year, women of the city Olive and Nancy welcome Roo and Barney (Dan Wylie) down from the Queensland canefields for the five month layoff between seasons. The seventeenth summer Olive (Susie Porter) will spend with Roo (Steve le Marquand) is beginning: the summer of 1953.

Summer of the seventeenth doll by ray lawler