Summer of the Seventeenth Doll

A production by Christine Harris and HIT Productions

From the canefields to the city, an iconic Australian story of passion, bittersweet romance and the yearning for lost youth.

A beautifully observed, humorous, and poignant play, Ray Lawler’s much-loved tale of two Queensland cane cutters who for 16 years have worked up north in the brutal sugar cane fields and travelled back to Melbourne to meet up for five months of partying and romance with their barmaid girlfriends. But this seventeenth summer will prove challenging for them all. A triumph at its 1955 Melbourne premiere, followed by a national tour and hugely successful season in London’s West End, this new production of the iconic Australian classic Summer of the Seventeenth Doll will be directed by award-winning Denny Lawrence.

Writer: Ray Lawler

Director: Denny Lawrence

Set and Costume Designer: Adrienne Chisholm

LX Designer: Niklas Pajanti

“The Doll is a wonderful piece of theatre, that isn’t really about a moment in our past, but about the search for love and the disappointments, denial and heartbreak that can come to those who refuse to see the realities of the world around them.” – Australian Stage