SYNOPSIS Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is an Australian play written by Ray Lawler, first performed in 1955 and then first published in 1957. The play is set in an old house in Carlton, Melbourne, in early December of 1953.
Olive, Bubba and Pearl are awaiting the arrival of Roo and Barney who are coming down from Queensland to spend their layoff season with the women. Emma is at community singing, Olive is nervously getting ready, and Bubba is telling Pearl about Nancy, who used to spend every summer with them but was married earlier this year. When Roo and Barney arrive they bring with them their usual pile of presents including the doll that Roo brings Olive each layoff season – this year‟s doll is the seventeenth doll.
Barney reveals to Olive that Roo had a bad season as he has hurt his back and had trouble in the sugar cane fields. Barney explains that Roo had gained a rival - Johnnie Dowd, a young man who‟d grown up on the fields and proved to be an excellent canecutter. A competition had started up between the two men, but in the end Roo‟s strained back gave way and he collapsed. Roo lost the competition, his pride and subsequently left the fields broke, meaning that for the first time in seventeen summers he arrives at Olive‟s place without much cash to his name.
The day after his arrival Roo decides to get a job despite Barney‟s dismay and Olive‟s protests. This is the second major change from the previous sixteen summers, the first being Nancy‟s absence and the presence of Pearl. We hear Barney and Pearl talk about Barney‟s past. Barney reveals that he has illegitimate children in three different states. This shocks Pearl who strongly believes in family and disapproves of Barney‟s disregard of how „decent‟ families work. In the end Barney makes Pearl come round using his charm and explaining to her that “he‟s not after all the lov‟in he can get but that he has a lot of lov‟in he can give” [Act One, Scene Two]. After this chat Pearl decides to stay for the rest of the summer.
Act Two opens on New Year‟s Eve. Olive and Roo are playing cards, Pearl is knitting, Barney is writing a letter, Emma is in her room and Bubba is going out to a party. Once Bubba has gone the remaining five realise that they have nothing to do: it‟s New Year‟s Eve and they are at home doing nothing of substance. Pearl begins talking with amusement about how, while Olive had implied that summer with Barney and Roo was constantly fun and exciting, here the five of them were, at home doing nothing on New Year‟s Eve. When the clock strikes twelve Olive breaks down in tears mourning the loss of her fun filled summers as their end draws ever closer.
The following Friday Roo is in his work clothes (he is now working as a painter) sleeping on the lounge. He is woken as Barney arrives home after a big night out with some other sugar cane farmers who are down in Melbourne during the layoff like Barney and Roo. Barney has bought home Johnnie Dowd, Roo‟s rival during the sugar cane season. Barney is insistent that Roo and Johnnie make a truce and Roo agrees so as to not look scared. Barney organises for the three of them to go to the races and decides that the ladies should come too. Barney asks Pearl if she would bring her daughter along as company for Dowd, which Pearl is very upset by. Barney then asks Bubba instead. Bubba agrees – she has seen Barney and Roo come down every summer since she was five and seeks a life like the one she has lived next door to for the past seventeen years. She also responds to that fact that Dowd treats her like an adult, not like a little girl.
Once Dowd leaves, Roo and Barney have a huge fight. Roo is humiliated at having to face Dowd in his painter‟s clothes and at having to have a triple date to the races set up behind his back. He accuses Barney of simply pandering to Dowd because he is now the best sugar cane harvester. Barney says he was trying to get Roo back in with the others in their team, who felt betrayed when Roo walked out. Roo reveals to Olive that he never hurt his back on the sugar cane fields. He says Dowd was just a better man than him and he couldn‟t take it, that‟s why he left.
The next day when Roo wakes up and comes downstairs all seventeen dolls and the other gifts that he and Barney have brought down during the layoff over the years have been removed. The room is bare. Olive is there and Pearl is in the doorway with her bags waiting for a taxi. Olive says that once she had started cleaning she couldn‟t stop and that most of the decorations were breaking and she decided to put them away.
While Olive is upstairs, Roo asks for Emma‟s advice, and she helps Roo to see the situation for how it really is. Barney returns, and tells Roo that a group of them are heading up the Murray region to pick grapes. Roo flatly refuses saying he could never leave Olive before the end of the layoff season. Roo tells Olive that he has decided to stay down in Melbourne all year, and asks her to marry him. This greatly upsets her, and she demands from Roo that he give her back what he‟s taken, the perfect past sixteen summers. Olive leaves the house in a state.
The play concludes with Emma deciding there will be no more summers like the past ones and telling Roo and Barney to move on as they are no longer welcome. The pair decides to try a new tack as they have had the same routine for so long. They decide to go to new places and try new things, Bubba goes after Johnnie Dowd, saying she‟ll work out a way to keep the magical way of life she‟s hankered after for so long while Olive is left to rebuild her life, with her yearly routine shattered, and no layoff season to look forward to.
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll
From English Works
In the Summer of the Seventeenth Doll ,(1955) Australian playwright Ray Lawler shows how changing experiences and circumstances often force us to reconsider who we are and our vision of ourselves and our future. There may be a change to group dynamics as individuals move in and out of groups; or we may be just growing older or we may change our priorities in life; whatever the challenge, we often have to reconsider our dreams, our goals, our illusions, our relationships and priorities. Failure to constantly amend and adapt has serious consequences for our happiness and wellbeing.
When Pearl replaces Nancy, and Johnny replaces Roo, Olive, Roo and Barney all have to deal with changes to who they are and how they see themselves. They have to deal with how they wish to relate to each other and on what terms. They have to face the evaporation of their youthful dreams.
Personal growth and development
In Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, the aging members of the group must come to terms with their changing circumstances, and must re-evaluate their hopes, their goals, their expectations (their relationships) and their illusions in life. Whilst Olive, Roo and Barney are reluctant to make the necessary adjustments, Lawler suggests that the failure to change will inevitably lead to disappointment, sadness and a sense of failure.
Accordingly, Lawler uses the seventeen dolls symbolically to represent the search by the protagonists to find a meaning in the life. It is a time of reckoning; it is a time to make adjustments and to think about one’s future.
(Roo brings Olive a Kepia doll each year. The dolls represent the idealistic dreams and hopes of their alternative romance; which they believe is more unique, fresh and exciting than the ordinary, mundane married lifestyle.)
The most obvious sign that the lay-off season is over, and their relationships destroyed, is when Roo takes down the seventeenth doll from the piano. He smashes it “again and again, and then tearing at its fabric until it is nothing but a litter of split cane, shredded material and broken celluloid”. ”. In her typically grim and determined voice, Emma warns Roo, “The lay-offs in this house are finished – for all of you”.
Lawler suggests that the failure to make adjustments leads to misery and despair.
The physical destruction of the 17th doll mirrors Roo’s psychological despair as “something breaks deep within him”; he stares at the “tinsel mess” with a “helpless loss and anguish
As Barney and Roo leave the house there is a sense that they have all lost a great deal because of their inflated dreams.
Personal growth and development:
Lawler suggests that it is critical at stages in our life to make such necessary readjustments.
Through characters such as Roo and Nancy, Lawler suggests that we must come to terms with our limitations and know when to move on and when to let go of youthful, idealistic dreams. Roo is prepared to come to terms with his bleaker future working in a paint factory and believes that their best chance is to opt for marriage and stability.
As a leader of the canecutters, Roo is forced to confront his own (physical) limitations through the rivalry with Johnnie Dowd. He is getting older and is not able to keep up the fast and furious pace. He has to make adjustments if he is to survive; he cannot cling to the myth of his superiority; he will have to humble himself and find a different job – one that does not make such physical demands on an ageing body. This is a humbling experience for one who prides himself on his physical prowess and superior strength. He tries to be honest to Olive and shows resilience in the face of his increasing weakness. This rivalry sets him up for mockery and he has to revise his dreams (the paint factory) and his role as leader.
Likewise, individuals often have to make adjustments because of unexpected tragic accidents/circumstances/illnesses.
Failure to adjust leads to a life of missed opportunities and regrets. Barney spends the summer pining for Nancy. The wedding photos of Nancy to which he clings symbolically remind him of his loss.
Although he is losing his sexual prowess, Barney does not want to admit that he is no longer able to court women with the same charming audacity. Reluctantly, he must face the fact that he has lost perhaps his best chance of a secure, settled, and loving partnership which ushers in regrets and a time for soul-searching.
Olive refuses to change her illusions.
Whilst Roo is prepared to come to terms with his bleaker future working in a paint factory, Olive refuses to settle for marriage. Olive inflates, exaggerates and sensationalises their time together in order to give the impression that she is living a perfect, romantic lifestyle with the two men. She presents their weekend place at Selby as a palace. So grand are her dreams that Pearl expects the town to explode like balloons when the men arrive.
Ominously, Olive recognises the shabbiness of the dolls when she takes the dolls down to dust, but refuses to countenance an end to their dreams. “They fell to pieces. Some of the dolls were moth-eaten, and the butterflies, you couldn’t touch ‘em. Coral and the shells were alright, but they looked so silly on their own I couldn’t put them back”. (82).
Roo tells her, “you’re nothing; but a kid ‘bout twelve years old”. (93) She clings to the illusion that it could still work if Roo goes back with Barney: “It’s the only chance we’ve got”. Lawler depicts Olive uselessly clinging to the past “I want what I had before”, which he suggests will exacerbate her despair. Olive literally wants to evaluate the Summers as a profit and loss sheet, but cannot block the feeling that she has lost more than she has gained. In particular, she is humiliated by the fact that Pearl seems to recognise the extent of her loss as she always did. She is annoyed that Pearl feels sorry for her because she has never been “within cooee of the real thing … that’s what hurts..” (92)
Olive clings to illusions which eventually lead to disappointment and failure..
Contrastingly, Olive fails to make adjustments. As Olive states, “I’m blind to what I want to be”. Up until the end of the play, and even after Roo’s demise, Olive still determinedly clings to the romantic myth of a blissful alternative and exciting lifestyle. She is personally affronted and angry at anyone who seeks to challenge the myth or undermine it. Olive idolises a romantic past with Roo and Barney whom she presents as two eagles who come down South every season “for the matin’ season”. Her illusions and vision of herself remains wedded to the past and her idea of the “eagles” who swoop into town to romance and give the girls an alternative lifestyle and a fun-filled summer haven.
In order to cling to the illusion, Olive conveniently overlooks many factors such as the rickety Sunday night boat trips. She refuses to accept that Roo, as he ages, has to rely on work in a paint factory; the “glamorous” times have evaporated and she refuses to opt for marriage. As she loses her youthful vigour and charm, she becomes ever vulnerable to loneliness, sadness and disappointment – the excitement that surrounds the lay-off season is coming to an end.
Roo brings Olive a Kepia doll each year. The dolls represent the idealistic dreams and hopes of their alternative romance; which they believe is more unique, fresh and exciting than the ordinary, mundane married lifestyle. Olive inflates, exaggerates and sensationalises their time together in order to give the impression that she is living a perfect, romantic lifestyle with the two men. She presents their weekend place at Selby as a palace. So grand are her dreams that Pearl expects the town to explode like balloons when the men arrive.
Newcomers to the group
Challenges ahead It is not only their age that forces the evaluation; the newcomers, Pearl and Johnnie, force the members of the group to evaluate their increasingly unrealistic expectations.
As Pearl states, their’s was an inflated ideal; Olive “boosted you two up so much before you came, I didn’t know what to expect” (45) Likewise, the boys tell Johnnie that they have a fun-filled Summer down South which he realises is completely incongruous to the rather ordinary drab house where they stay with Olive and Emma.
Johnnie also recognises the extent of the boys’ deceit when he visits them. Team members and their interaction can provide us with significant insights, especially those involving the dynamics of leaders and their gang. The canecutters work in groups of around 10 workers. Lawler suggests that there is a hierarchical structure in the group and that people often occupy and change places according to their degree of physical and psychological power. Johnnie is on the ascendancy and there are signs that whilst he is prepared to apologise and reconcile with Roo, he nevertheless expects to surpass him as leader, and this is a humiliating realisation for Roo.
Barney has also forewarned Roo about the inevitability of Johnnie’s ascendancy. Barney recognises that his fortunes lie with the “young Dowd”. He knows that he will rule the group whether or not Roo approves, and it will be better to “split up, get away from one another”. (90)
The day after the smashing of the dolls, Olive, Roo and Barney must all confront the fact that times have changed and that they have no option but to change with the times. Although it seems as if it happens in just one violent confrontation, the signs have been evident from the beginning of the seventeenth summer. Lawler shows that each of the protagonists must confront the realisation of their fading dreams. He suggests they are simply too old to continue the wonderful myth of an excellent summer lay-off season which depends upon youthful vigour and charm, coupled with a degree of insouciance and naivety.
Often an unfortunate experience, encounters with others (often outsiders), and physical problems make us confront our goals and expectations in life and challenge us to make readjustments. Roo confronts the humiliation of his physical shortcomings and this has an impact upon his psychological strength. He must readjust his vision of himself; his physical demise means that he is no longer the extolled leader. With his crashing dreams, he humbly makes Olive an offer of marriage, but she is not prepared to accept the end of their dreams.
Alternatively, it takes the voice of wisdom such as Emma’s to challenge their views and undermine their false sense of confidence. (Emma forces Roo to revisit their first meeting – the boys who were “out of their depth”, but who were nevertheless able to attract the girls’ attention for seventeen summers.) Roo is forced to confront his growing self doubts,(85) and candidly admits that they are just a “couple of lousy no-hopers” (75)
Often during testing times, we may seek refuge in special friendships that provide solace and comfort. Such friendships can be particularly enduring and important because they provide a life-raft or stability at a critical time in our life.
Sometimes it can be rewarding to follow a different lifestyle and indulge our alternative interests and values.
It is important to follow one’s heart.
Whilst it is important not to compromise our sense of self, we also must learn when to let go of unrealistic or unfeasible goals or illusions/expectations.
Sometimes we need to make important adjustments and deal with our limitations/weaknesses in order to grow.
Differences can lead to a lot of soul-searching. The way we deal with our differences and cope with adversity will have a big impact on our life’s journey. In many cases, adversity or obstacles can strengthen us and help us to find a purpose. They may challenge us to make commitments or to look at our life from different perspective.