Theatre review
Eleanor Pearson 2 July 2016 A Time for Reaping
In 1955 Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll premiered at the Union Theatre, Melbourne.
This winter Epicentre Theatre Company lovingly revitalises this classic Australian drama at Ku-ring-gai Town Hall.
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On the walls 16 kewpie dolls are symbolic of times past. Good times at the cottage of Olive, a Melbourne barmaid, who waits every year for the layoff season of sugarcane cutter, Roo. Without fail, Roo, and his best mate, Barney, return to the house, shared by Olive’s mother, Emma, to spend “the best five months of the year”, with Olive, and her best friend, Nancy. Each year Roo brings Olive a kewpie doll - a sentimental “anniversary” gift.
This year, Nancy, “the shrewd one”, has left the group, and got married. In her place, the optimistic Olive (Jody Goodman) has brought the snide, but goodhearted Pearl (Natasha McDonald), to complete the foursome. To top things off, Roo (Simon Clarke) has been unemployed for months, and is broke when he reluctantly returns to Olive.
It is almost inevitable this summer will see a cool change move in. You can’t fault the laconic scripting, or the acting in this Epicentre production. |
Despite the impending mood of melancholy, there’s freshness to this production, from Olive’s first entrance in green and white, looking like springtime.
As Olive, Goodman glitters with anticipation before her “fella’s” arrival. Slowly Olive unravels, so by the end her disillusionment is apparent, and transformation complete. When she says, “I miss a bit of a laugh”, we feel her longing for her lost youth. At 22, Olive’s long-time neighbour, Kathy “Bubba” Ryan is on the cusp of a new romance, and Cait Burley’s Bubba is gutsy and refreshingly astute, especially at the end.
Like newcomer Pearl, we are built up to expect a big entrance from Roo and Barney. Actors Simon Clarke and Josh McGuire don’t disappoint. Every minute they are on stage, they are fully present. When they fight, their rage is real. And when they break, all bravado slips away, like a coat to the ground. The developing sexual tension between Barney and Pearl is also funny and compelling to watch. The action is observed and calculated by Emma, played wryly by Christine Rule. It is Emma who delivers the final wisdom of the play, when things fall apart:
“It’s nobody’s fault…There’s a time for sowing, and a time for reaping.”
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll plays until July 2, 2016
Like newcomer Pearl, we are built up to expect a big entrance from Roo and Barney. Actors Simon Clarke and Josh McGuire don’t disappoint. Every minute they are on stage, they are fully present. When they fight, their rage is real. And when they break, all bravado slips away, like a coat to the ground. The developing sexual tension between Barney and Pearl is also funny and compelling to watch. The action is observed and calculated by Emma, played wryly by Christine Rule. It is Emma who delivers the final wisdom of the play, when things fall apart:
“It’s nobody’s fault…There’s a time for sowing, and a time for reaping.”
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll plays until July 2, 2016