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Ray Lawler Ray Lawler i(A20518 works by) (a.k.a. Raymond Evenor Lawler)
Born: Established: 23 May 1921 Footscray, Footscray - Maribyrnong area, Melbourne - West, Melbourne, Victoria, ; Died: Ceased: 24 Jul 2024 Melbourne, Victoria,
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 The Way We Were Ray Lawler , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: The Adelaide Review , May no. 423 2015; (p. 28)
1 The Little Theatre Company That Could Ray Lawler , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 31 August 2013; (p. 22)
1 The Getting of Wisdom : Lessons Learnt from Life : Ray Lawler Ray Lawler , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: Good Weekend , 14 January 2012; (p. 30)
1 The Doll Revisited : A Truer Realisation Ray Lawler , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Summer of the Seventeenth Doll 2012; (p. vii-xii)

Ray Lawler explains the circumstances in which he decided to create the Doll Trilogy. He also provides background information on canecutting, boarding houses and kewpie dolls.

1 From : Summer of the Seventeenth Doll Ray Lawler , 2009 extract drama (Summer of the Seventeenth Doll)
— Appears in: Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature 2009; (p. 683-690)
1 The Street Where I Lived Ray Lawler , 2002 single work column autobiography
— Appears in: The Age , 8 January 2002; (p. 9)
1 [Untitled] (from Summer of the Seventeenth Doll) Ray Lawler , 1996 extract
— Appears in: The Arnold Anthology of Post-Colonial Literatures in English 1996; (p. 208-218)
1 [Untitled] (from Summer of the Seventeenth Doll) Ray Lawler , 1991 extract
— Appears in: The Language of Love : An Anthology of Australian Love Letters, Poetry and Prose 1991; (p. 125-126)
1 [Untitled] (from Summer of the Seventeenth Doll) Ray Lawler , 1990 extract
— Appears in: The Macmillan Anthology of Australian Literature 1990; (p. 284-287)
1 7 Godsend Ray Lawler , 1982 single work drama
1 form y separately published work icon Summer of the Seventeenth Doll Ray Lawler , ( dir. Rod Kinnear ) Melbourne Australia : Melbourne Theatre Company Seven Network , 1979 Z898054 1979 single work film/TV

Roo and Barney are Queensland canecutters who have spent the off-season in Melbourne with their girlfriends for sixteen years. Each summer, Barney ritualistically presents his girl Olive, a barmaid, with a kewpie doll. But the seventeenth summer is different; time has begun to take its toll. The themes of faded dreams, idealism, disillusionment, and the determination to live bring out a quintessential Australian boisterous flavour while portraying what happens when the values of the outback hero conflict with urban domesticity.

2 23 y separately published work icon The Doll Trilogy Ray Lawler , 1977 Sydney : Currency Press , 1978 Z425903 1977 series - author drama (taught in 3 units)
1 26 y separately published work icon Kid Stakes Ray Lawler , 1975 Sydney : Currency Press , 1987 Z1239535 1975 single work drama
1 5 y separately published work icon The Man Who Shot the Albatross Ray Lawler , 1971 1973 (Manuscript version)x401489 Z514118 1971 single work drama
1 12 y separately published work icon Other Times Ray Lawler , 1970-1979 Z513399 1970-1979 single work drama
1 form y separately published work icon A Breach in the Wall Ray Lawler , ( dir. Gilchrist Calder ) London : British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) , 1967 6468870 1967 single work film/TV

'On December 29, 1170, a "turbulent priest" named Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was martyred in his own cathedral. For nearly three-and-a-half centuries his tomb behind the High Altar was the goal of countless pilgrims (including of course Chaucer's), seeking the Saint's blessing and hoping for cures. Then came the Reformation; and Thomas' coffin with the vast treasure which pilgrims had helped around it disappeared. In A Breach In The Wall, tonight's play, the Australian playwright Ray Lawler suggests what might be the consequences if the Saint's body were ever to come to light again.

'A Breach In The Wall is set some time in the near future. The parish church of the Kentish village of Valham is undergoing long-overdue restoration - restoration largely made possible by the fund-raising efforts of the able and radical young incumbent, Lewis Patterson. A walled-in chamber is discovered and within it is a coffin sealed with the crest of Becket. The excitement which follows is used by Mr Lawler to examine the state of the Churches, and Faith itself, today. Would the discovery help to breach the wall between the Anglican and Roman Churches? If the body again became an object of pilgrimage, would it cause an embarrassing revival of "superstition"?'

Source: Radio Times, 23 March 1967.

1 10 y separately published work icon The Piccadilly Bushman Ray Lawler , London : Angus and Robertson , 1961 Z76402 1961 single work drama
1 The Doll on Broadway Ray Lawler , 1958 single work
— Appears in: The Observer , 22 February no. 1 1958; (p. 17)
7 210 y separately published work icon Summer of the Seventeenth Doll Ray Lawler , 1955 London Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1957 Z522838 1955 single work drama (taught in 56 units)

'The most famous Australian play and one of the best loved, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is a tragicomic story of Roo and Barney, two Queensland sugar-cane cutters who go to Melbourne every year during the 'layoff' to live it up with their barmaid girl friends. The title refers to kewpie dolls, tawdry fairground souvenirs, that they brings as gifts and come, in some readings of the play, to represent adolescent dreams in which the characters seem to be permanently trapped. The play tells the story in traditional well-made, realistic form, with effective curtains and an obligatory scene. Its principal appeal – and that of two later plays with which it forms The Doll Trilogy – is the freshness and emotional warmth, even sentimentality, with which it deals with simple virtues of innocence and youthful energy that lie at the heart of the Australian bush legend.

'Ray Lawler’s play confronts that legend with the harsh new reality of modern urban Australia. The 17th year of the canecutters’ arrangement is different. There has been a fight on the canefields and Roo, the tough, heroic, bushman, has arrived with his ego battered and without money. Barney’s girl friend Nancy has left to get married and is replaced by Pearl, who is suspicious of the whole set-up and hopes to trap Barney into marriage. The play charts the inevitable failure of the dream of the layoff, the end of the men’s supremacy as bush heroes and, most poignantly, the betrayal of the idealistic self-sacrifice made by Roo’s girl friend Olive – the most interesting character – to keep the whole thing going. The city emerges victorious, but the emotional tone of the play vindicates the fallen bushman.'

Source: McCallum, John. 'Summer of the Seventeenth Doll.' Companion to Theatre in Australia. Ed. Philip Parson and Victoria Chance. Sydney: Currency Press , 1997: 564-656.

1 The Adventures of Ginger Meggs Ray Lawler , Agnes Fulton (composer), 1952 single work musical theatre children's
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