The original work on which this production is based is the classic Australian play, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. This play put Australian theatre on the international map in the 1950's, and remains a seminal work in the Australian canon with its evocative rendering of lost time. Playwright, Ray Lawler, gave permission for Jacqui Carroll to reconfigure his most famous work as a theatrical fantasy. This work has a mystical aura through the use of imagery that is both cartoon-like and surreal.  Ninety percent of the dialogue has been replaced by movement and music that is entertaining, poignant and witty.

Olive, Roo, Barney, Pearl remain as the dreamy main characters and, surrounded by the vocal and musical chorus of the three probing realists, they continually search for past happiness in a world that has changed forever. In this production the Doll has morphed into a life sized fairy that flits in and out, casting her charming, eccentric spell over everyone.

The past is another country, you can never go back…

The Doll: Lisa O’Neill

Olive: Caroline Dunphy

Pearl: Leah Shelton

Roo: John Nobbs

Barney: Conan Dunning

Chorus: Emma Pursey, Ramsay Hatfield, Neridah Waters  

Adaptation/Direction: Jacqui Carroll

Set and Props: John Nobbs and Robyn Graham

Costumes: Glen Brown

“OzFrank’s ironically bitter sweet production emerged as a dark triumph – as the ‘essential’ Doll... it imaginatively and skilfully re-membered the original in a torpedo-charged, wittily theatricalised version….. Jacqui Carroll’s achievement is to reaffirm The Summer of The Seventeenth Doll’s ‘classic’ status.” - Real Time December 2003

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