Still from the 1959 film adaptation of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (Image: AAP/Mary Evans Picture Library)
Still from the 1959 film adaptation of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (Image: AAP/Mary Evans Picture Library)

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past year thinking about the late Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, and it’s been fascinating reading the obits for Lawler coming from big theatre companies, journos and the like. It was nice to see Guy Rundle take the thought a bit further than “Vale Ray Lawler”.

I’m a theatremaker; you could probably say my mates and I are more like the “German shrieking” types mentioned in Guy’s article, without the Blanchett budget. Last December we got stuck into workshopping The Doll.