Summer of the Seventeenth Doll
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll by Ray Lawler is a play which encompasses many ideals of the time in which it was written, and numerous themes such as that of maturity, stereotypes, ageing and time, change, dreams vs reality, loyalty and expectations. ... During the scene where Barney reveals that Roo never had a bad back, and they fought, smashing the vase holding the seventeenth doll, we see Olive showing the extent of her immaturity. ... A grown up woman, howling over a silly old kewpie doll. ... ” This is Roo’s final admission of the destruction of the dream, and as Olive leaves him he smashes the seventeenth doll as a powerful visual image – there is no attempt at resolution, or subtlety – the destruction is borne of a brutal, primitive instinct of helplessness and frustration, an emotion that is basic to human nature, that all people could relate to. ... Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is a play that is set in the housewife era of morals of marriage and gender related ‘duties’, but while this does alienate the audience from some aspects of the play, it does nothing to reduce its impact.