“The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll” is a timeless play because it can be transposed to be as relevant today as it is at the time of its writing. The play is definitely a tragicomedy, but more than the ideas raised in the statement, the play is about change and the inability of some to cope with it, about the battle between dream and reality, between loyalty and camaraderie. It also serves as a social document of 1950s Australia. Lawler uses symbols, character actions, play structure and setting to effectively describe his feelings to the audience. The main theme expressed in the play is change and the characters' inability to cope with it. Like many working class people of that era, the characters in the play are quite uneducated and for this reason they do not understand the aging process, they cling to what they know best, namely youth, and this causes their downfall. Olive is the classic dreamer. She is thirty-nine years old but continues to live as if she were a teenager. She has extremely strong ideals, which she refuses to let go of. She wants excitement; she wants “five months of paradise every year.” She doesn't want the monotony and responsibilities of married life. Roo and Barney, once fit young men, were laid off this year, taking their ever-increasing ages with them. Roo is no longer as fit and healthy as he used to be - his back hurts - and his pride also prevents him from realizing that he is getting older and his life is changing for him. Time also catches up with Barney and he is no longer the embodiment of masculine prowess he once believed himself to be. Beneath his smiling and pleasant facade, he is in reality a rather pathetic man who doesn't really understand what's going on... middle of paper... this is what the characters discover that they can't not manage: change. The real tragedy of the play is watching the characters destroy themselves through their own inarticulacy and lack of understanding. Ray Lawler very effectively shows the fall of the characters through his staging. The play works because it touches on the audience's sense of compassion for the characters - we feel pity for them as they age. “The characters are real: neighbors, people in pubs.” The characters' language and relatively carefree attitude to life means that the audience is able to identify with the people on stage and ultimately become more involved in the story. “The Doll” is best summed up by Ray Lawler himself; "A play about growing up, about people who can't grow up, and about people who can, about people who can't face the reality of life.."