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Steve Le Marquand & Susie Porter |
Helen Thompson & Dan Wylie |
POSTED: 01 OCTOBER 2011 Summer of the 17th Doll, by Ray Lawler | Directed by Neil Armfield Belvoir | Belvoir Upstairs, Surry Hills, Sydney | Until 13 November Summer of the Seventeenth Doll — as the first internationally famous Australian play — is now iconic, a living treasure. It is also, in many ways, quite dated, mostly by its morals and colloquialisms. Many of us, I am sure, have sat through tedious amateur performances of this beloved classic, but let me assure you, this is not the case here! This is a meticulous recreation that mirrors the transformation of the old Australia of Paterson’s Outback to the future hedonism of urban Australian culture — a fitting topic for Australian drama, at this moment, with its central themes of change and ageing .
For the previous 16 summers, two canecutters, Roo (Steve Le Marquand) and Barney (Dan Wyllie), have come south to Melbourne for the five-month off-season. They enjoy this time with two women, Olive (Susie Porter) and Nancy, but this season things have changed. Nancy has left to get married and has been replaced in the foursome by Pearl (Helen Thompson), another barmaid. Also, the cane-cutting season has not been successful. Roo has been unable to maintain his place as the head ganger and has been replaced by a younger man, Johnnie Dowd (TJ Power). So, Roo is broke and has to find a job in the city, and things ain’t never gonna be the same. Susie Porter as the idealistic and tragic Olive gives a complex characterisation of a woman in meltdown. At times she is childlike as she clings to a reality that cannot continue, and yet she has challenged the morals of her time and in the end rejected them totally. She is also simultaneously a superb evocation of how many people are reluctant to change. Helen Thompson’s role is less complex and as Pearl she epitomises the voice of sanity, moderation and, ironically, liberation, realising as she does the importance of being an independent woman. As the outsider she is dressed to impress and her costumes (Dale Ferguson) and rigid body language let us know early on that she will never enter this world. Robyn Nevin as the ageing Emma is perceptive and focused. Her concentration never falters or alters. She is always in the moment and quite flawless as Olive’s vigilant mother. At the other end of the age spectrum, Yael Stone’s Bubba is boisterous, uncomplicated and superbly nuanced. Stone ups the tempo at every entrance and is a breath of fresh air that clears the cigarette smoke and aromas of sizzling snags. Together these women steal the show from the men who never really manage to mine the same revelatory performances from the text. Dan Wyllie works overtime to divulge the depths of the vanished womaniser and charmer, now the alcohol-soaked larrikin, that is Barney, and he is very successful. But it is Roo who seems to pale in comparison. We do get the sense of obligation buried deep beneath his brooding silences, but Le Marquand misses the opportunity to truly connect with Olive and only occasionally moves beyond subverted simmering. Much has been heard about Dowd, both and off the stage before he enters, and Power’s performance as the younger version of the proud Roo is aptly functional as he deconstructs the myth of mateship. Ralph Myers has made some interesting design choices, namely the absence of the veranda and French windows. Instead we have a vast open space, sparsely furnished, mostly lacking in any social, cultural or period indicators, and one in which the kewpie dolls do not take pride of place. What it does allow is the operatic quality of the play to materialise. Sweeping exits and entrances provide the traffic of melodrama that forwards us swiftly to its now famous climax. In Lawler’s play the characters have been living according to a tried formula, a ritual repeating itself each year. But the formula cannot go on for ever, a timely reminder to us all. Thumbs up!
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All images: Heidren Lohr ©2011
Robyn Nevin
Yael Stone & Dan Wylie |
Dan Wylie & Steve Le Marquand |
Steve Le Marquand & TJ Power |
