Summer of the Seventeenth Doll

Set in Melbourne, Australia in 1953, Summer of Seventeenth Doll by Ray Lawler tells the story of Olive Leech's tradition of summering with two sugarcane cutters during the layoff season. It is the 17th year that Arthur "Barney" Ibbot and Olive's boyfriend Reuben "Roo" Webber have come to stay with her, but this summer proves to be less care-free than the others. Angus & Robertson first published the play in 1955.

The play is considered to be the third in a trilogy with two prequels, Kid Stakes and Other Times. The prequels detail the beginning of the summer traditions and have many of the same characters.

The play opens as the women of an old house in Carlton, Melbourne prepare for Roo and Barney to arrive from Queensland. Olive is getting ready and her friend Pearl is talking with Olive's young neighbor, a girl named Bubba. Olive's friend, Nancy usually stays with Olive during the summer but was recently married. Olive has invited her coworker Pearl in Nancy's stead. Emma, Olive's elderly mother, also lives there.



Pearl is a widowed mother of a teenager. Olive intends to set her up with Barney, but Pearl claims that Olive's tradition of summering with the men is indecent. Olive defends herself and tells Pearl that she can be polite or leave.

The men arrive with presents for the women, including a kewpie doll. The doll is the seventeenth, as this is the seventeenth summer that the men have stayed at Olive's house.

Barney tells the girls about their season. Roo got into an altercation with another field hand, Johnnie Dowd, and the two entered into a competition. Roo's back gave out, and Johnnie won. Roo abandoned his work, and he has no money this summer. The next day, despite Olive and Barney's protestations, Roo decides to get a job as a painter.



Barney tells Pearl that he has children with different women in three states. Despite Pearl's disapproval, she's soon won over by Barney's charm, and he convinces her to stay for the summer.

On New Year's Eve, the characters are all involved in menial tasks. Pearl playfully remarks that this wasn't at all like the wild, fun summer that Olive had described to her. Olive begins crying, feeling that her fun-filled summers are over.

A few days later, Roo is sleeping on the lounge in his painter's clothes when Barney arrives. He's been out all night with some of the other sugar cane workers and he's accompanied by Johnnie Dowd. He instigates a truce between Johnnie and Roo and invites them to go to the races. He asks Pearl if her daughter would come with them, which angers Pearl, so they ask Bubba to go instead. Bubba, intrigued by the fun atmosphere that she's seen next door over the past seventeen summers, agrees.



With their plans set, Johnnie leaves, and Roo yells at Barney for making him meet with his enemy while he was in his work clothes. He accuses Barney of sucking up to Johnnie because he's the best harvester now. Barney reveals that the harvesting team felt abandoned by Roo and that he was trying to mend their relationship. Roo implies that women find Barney inadequate in the bedroom, and Barney reveals that Roo never actually hurt his back. Barney throws a vase full of Olive's dolls at Roo.

The next day, Olive has removed all of the gifts Roo brought her, including the dolls. She explains that the items were breaking and she decided to put them into storage. Emma tells Barney that Olive is childish and they are all too old for the layoff season frivolities now.

Barney asks Roo if he wants to join him and the other harvesters who are leaving to harvest grapes. He says this season hasn't been any fun without Nancy. Roo thinks he can't leave Olive. He tells Olive that he's staying in Melbourne and that he wants to marry her. Olive asks for the "perfect past sixteen summers" back and storms out of the house.
Emma tells Roo and Barney that they can't stay in the house any longer. Roo breaks the 17th doll in a fit of rage, and the pair leaves. Bubba pursues Johnnie Dowd in search of her magical summers, and Olive has to prepare for a new way of life without her beloved layoff season.



The play was first performed at the Union Theatre in Melbourne, Australia in 1955. It was well-received in its home country and is considered one of the first truly "Australian" production, with authentic characters and Australian lifestyles.

Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions adapted the play into a film called Season of Passion. The movie was critiqued for its "Americanization," with most major roles played by American actors. The ending of the play was also rewritten in favor of a "happier" ending in the movie version.