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Doll
|
| Cast | |
| Bubba Ryan | Nicky Corfield |
| Pearl Cunningham | Vera Robinson |
| Olive Leech | Gillian Rafferty |
| Barney Ibbot | George Robinson |
| Emma Leech | Shirley Jacobs |
| Roo Webber | Neal Flux |
| Johnnie Dowd | Steve Marshall |
| Crew | |
| Stage Manager | Pearl Ayling |
| Assistant Stage Managers | Shirley Andrews, Maureen Hardwen, John King |
| Set Design | Bob Lacey |
| Costumes | Christine Milkins |
| Lighting | Christine Milkins, Tricia Robertson, Peter Meehan, Toby Moore |
| Sound | Marilynn Matthews, Sandra Southee, Bill Ayling |
Review
A mixture of misery and mirth
Bexleyheath's Edward Alderton Theatre ended their first season on the kind of note which is guaranteed to draw in huge audiences when they reopen later this year. Last week's production of Australian playwright Ray Lawler's Summer of the Seventeenth Doll saw a compact cast get to grips with some of the toughest rτles they have faced and achieve an outstanding success.
Director Bob Lacey can be proud of choosing a play which gave four actresses a chance to try their hand at some in-depth character acting, and proud of producing a polished and gripping play. Every ebb and flow of emotion in the play was transmitted to the heart of the audience, leaving viewers as exhausted as the cast by the end of the evening.
It was a difficult play for the group to take on a tangle of emotions, a strange mixture of mirth and misery, and needing a perceptive understanding of a way of life unique to Australia. All the players understood the odd 17-year relationship between two cane-cutters and their city girlfriends. And all were part of the harrowing distress of watching life and people change suddenly.
Neal Flux as cane-cutter Roo Webber once the top dog but now overshadowed by the energy of youth gave a powerful and uninhibited performance. There was nothing amateurish about his portrayal of a man who sees life and friends slipping away from him, with nothing to replace them. His fight scenes with George Robinson as Barney were realistic to a fault. The fault being that George injured his neck and ended the week with bruises and smashed furniture.
Barney was another complex figure an ageing gigolo clinging to a reputation which he knows time has tested once too often. The woman made to cope with the men's changing emotions is Olive Leech, played by Gillian Rafferty. It is she they come home to after seven months cane-cutting. She expects a blissful five month holiday for the 17th year running and watches her world shatter.
Gillian Rafferty was every inch the bubbling girlfriend looking for fun and only becoming serious when Roo threatened to end their special relationship with an offer of marriage. As Pearl Cunningham, the last-minute replacement girlfriend for Barney, Vera Robinson had the most obnoxious part the tutting killjoy, epitomizing the break-up before the others realised what was happening. She succeeded in transmitting her irritating put-downs to the audience, but at times she did not seem in tune with the character she was playing.
In previous productions Nicky Corfield has shone out as a natural actress for every minute she is on stage she is part of a play and last week was no exception. As Bubba Ryan, the girl-next-door, se was charmingly effervescent and gave strength to a part which could quite easily have become secondary to the main characters.
While on stage the cast gave one of the most united performances seen at the Alderton, the backstage crew were matching them for perfection. No money was wasted on the set and the lighting was well timed and discreet. The sound was also excellently timed and added credence to the play.
CT
Bexley Times | 2 June 1977
