by Ray Lawler

4 June - 4 July 2009

It’s 1953 and Australia is changing.  England is no longer the great protector, Australians are feeling the stirrings of republicanism, and the myth of the Outback, with its bronzed pioneers, is receding as the country becomes increasingly urbanised.  

In a fading inner-city terrace in Melbourne, the lives of a small group of friends are also changing. For 16 years, cane-cutters Roo and Barney have come south from Queensland to spend their summer layoff with two barmaids, Olive and Nancy, bringing a kewpie doll as a memento.  In this fateful seventeenth summer, however, Nancy has left for the respectability of marriage, replaced by the sceptical Pearl; Roo has lost his position as leader of the cane-cutting gang; and Bubba is no longer just the girl next door. The summer of the seventeenth doll will mark a turning point for all.

At the heart of Ray Lawler’s remarkable play lies the pain of having to change and the desire to keep things the way they’ve always been. With its working-class characters, colloquial language and controversial subject matter, the “Doll” shocked the conservative audiences of the Menzies’ era.  Yet the play was an instant hit, both here and abroad.  Australian theatre found its voice with Summer of the Seventeenth Doll.

 

Creative Team

Director  Rosane McNamara
Set & Costume Design   Gemma-Lark Johnson
Lighting Design   Tony Youlden
Assistant Director   Augusta Supple

Cast   Valentino Arico, Blair Cutting, Stefanie Funnell, Emma Harris, Jan Langford-Penny, Laura Munro and Stephen Peacocke

Performance Times

Thurs - Sat @ 8pm
Sun @ 5pm

Ticket Prices

Full  $28
Concession  $22
Group  $22 (10+)
School  $17 (10+)
Preview Wed 3 June  $10
Sunday 7 June @ 5pm "Pay What You Can" (minimum $10 - in person from 1 hour prior to performance. Subject to availability)

Running Time

TBC

by arrangement with Dominie Drama

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New Theatre's annual New Directions season will this year showcase the best of contemporary writing with three plays from Australia, and one each from Poland and Mexico.

Week One: 22 – 25 July

Horrific Acts for Charity

by Ben Ellis

World Premiere
Ben Ellis’ very funny satire challenges us to question the motives behind altruism. What it is about giving to the starving third world or that sad little boy dying of cancer that makes us feel so warm and fuzzy? As the play opens, another tsunami has devastated a poverty-ridden country and before the Red Cross can make it to the disaster area, a benefit concert is being planned and a bidding war over headline acts is in full swing

“He’s [Ellis] got a fantastic tone, wonderfully satiric, very intelligent, a fierce sort of mind.” - Robyn Nevin

By arrangement with The Cameron Creswell Agency

Director  James Beach
Cast   Andrew Duvall, Brendan Maclean, Oleg Pupovac, Katrina Rautenberg, Pearl Tan, Deborah Thomson and Helen Tonkin

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Week Two: 29 July – 1 August
A DOUBLE BILL

On Insomnia and Midnight

by Edgar Chias
translated by David Johnston

Australian Premiere
In an anonymous Mexican hotel a series of ritualistic encounters between an older European man and a young South American maid develop into a provocative and ambiguous game of power and obsession. A gripping and tense exposé of a potentially fatal encounter unfolds as the unnamed man coaxes the woman into revealing the most intimate details of her sexual awakening,

“Like a Last Tango in Paris scripted by Nabokov … unnerving and erotically charged” - Village Voice

Director  Alexandra Byron
Cast   Nastassja Djalog and Barry French

Victor and Sass

by Kathleen Cantarella

Sydney Premiere
Sass believed the strength of the bond with her brother Victor would shield them from the brutality of their childhood.  Then he abandoned her.  Now an alcoholic who’s lost all ability to love, she is lonely and unfulfilled. So when Victor returns to try to reclaim their relationship, the siblings embark on an intensely emotional journey, revisiting and confronting their relationship through a series of intriguing twists and turns. Part mystery, part love story, this is an honest and compassionate study of love, taboos, and human frailty.

“A dark, disturbing two-hander with punchy, sharp dialogue. You never know who to like or who to side for.” - Lowdown

Director  Jonathan Wald
Cast   Ben Brock and Jeneffa Soldatic

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Week Three: 5 – 8 August

A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians

by Dorota Maslowska
translated by Lisa Goldman and Paul Sirett

Australian Premiere
Meet Dzina and Parcha. They're the hitchhikers from hell. She's a pregnant, glue-sniffing wacko. He's an intimidating motor-mouthed hoon. But all is not as it first seems.  A fast-paced road-trip on black ice, laced with dark, ironic humour, this debut play from one of Poland's brightest young literary talents plunges into the chaos of a crumbling post-Communist society to illuminate the dangers of being different.

“Hunter S Thompson meets the Sex Pistols … a feverish mix of hippie and punk, vulgarity and poetry, the modern and the post-modern … an exciting work that screams of the now” - Alex Sierz

By arrangement with Agencja Literacka Syndykat Autorow, Julia Tyrrell Management and Independent Talent Group

Director  Alice Livingstone
Cast   Mairead Berne, John Keightley, Pete Nettell, Neil Phipps, Sandy Velini and Cheryl Ward

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Week Four: 12 – 15 August

Mrs Petrov’s Shoe

by Noëlle Janaczewska

Sydney Premiere
Anna Lubansky shoots to prominence with her first novel, the emotional narrative of a nine-year-old girl's struggle to reconcile her Australian reality with her parents' Central European heritage, set in the Cold War era of the early 1960s. Promoted as heavily autobiographical, the book garners a harvest of awards and Anna's multicultural star is shining brightly in the literary firmament—until the real fiction is uncovered, and Anna Lubansky is revealed to be the very non-European Ann Loxton.

"Mrs Petrov's Shoe is as much about cultural identity as it is about literary scandal and it is very funny." – Melbourne Stage Online, 2006

By arrangement with The Cameron Creswell Agency

Director  Mackenzie Steele
Cast   Will Carter, Lindsey Chapman, Sonia de Domeneghi, Will Edwards, Jeneffa Soldatic and Paul Treacy

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