lifestyle she is being presented with as "proper" or "decent". The play ends with a bitter fight between Olive and Roo after he proposes marriage to her and she is affronted, threatened by the prospect of any lifestyle other than the one to which she is accustomed. In the final scene, the two men leave together, the summer prematurely ended and the characters' futures uncertain. Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is part of a trilogy generally referred to as the Doll Trilogy; the story of The Doll is preceded by the prequels Kid Stakes (1975), set in 1937, which tells the story of the first year of the tradition and the origin of the gift of the Kewpie doll, and Other Times (1976), which is set in 1945 and includes most of the same characters. Productions Melbourne The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll had its world premiere on 28 November 1955, where it opened at the Union Theatre in Melbourne. This production of the play was directed by John Sumner and featured the following cast: Roma Johnston as Pearl Cunningham Fenella Maguire as Kathy "Bubba" Ryan June Jago as Olive Leech Ray Lawler as Barney Ibbot Carmel Dunn as Emma Leech Noel Ferrier as Roo Webber Malcolm Billings as Johnnie Dowd Sydney The play opened in Sydney, approximately two months later, on 10 January 1956, this time with significant changes to its cast: Madge Ryan as Pearl Cunningham Fenella Maguire as Kathie "Bubba" Ryan June Jago as Olive Leech Ray Lawler as Barney Ibbot Ethel Gabriel as Emma Leech Lloyd Berrell as Roo Webber John Llewellyn as Johnnie Dowd Country tour On 28 January 1956 a thirteen-week country tour of the play was announced, commencing on 14 February. The play toured New South Wales and Queensland, returning to Sydney for an encore season, and featured the following cast: Yvonne Lewis as Bubba Ryan Jacqueline Kott as Pearl Cunningham June Jago as Olive Leech Robert Levis as Barney Ibbot Dorothy Whiteley as Emma Leech Kenneth Warren as Roo Webber Keith Buckley as Johnnie Dowd United Kingdom After the final Sydney show of the play's country tour, The Doll moved to the United Kingdom, where it spent two weeks showing in Nottingham, Liverpool and Edinburgh before opening in London on 30 April 1957, with the following cast: Fenella Maguire as Bubba Ryan Madge Ryan as Pearl Cunningham June Jago as Olive Leech