Kid Stakes

KID STAKES
By Ray Lawler

Directed by Helen Trenos

The Summer of the 1st Doll

Kid Stakes is chronologically the 1st play in the Doll Trilogy by Ray Lawler. The 1st play, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, put Australia on the international stage in the 1950s. Subsequent to its success, Lawler wrote 2 prequels (Kid Stakes and Other Times) which chart the love affair between the central characters, Olive and Roo.
Kid Stakes tells the story of how Roo and Olive first met in 1937 (toward the end of the Depression and only 2 years before World War 2). It takes place in a Melbourne boarding house run under the eagle eye of Olive’s mother (Emma) and into which a couple of cane cutters (Roo and Barney) find themselves during the lay-off season after a chance meeting with Olive and her friend Nancy. Romances blossom and the stakes get higher in this summer of the first doll.
“This is a great play for young actors: full of youthful exuberance and is as the title suggests about being young” says director Helen Trenos. “It is a period piece focussing on the white, urban, working-class scarred by WWI and the depression—and how this shaped their fears, desires and struggles simply to make ends meet. However, the play’s youthful optimism, resilience and defiance still resonates.”
Kid Stakes is Hayman Theatre’s 3rd Major Production of the year and has a very limited season, so avoid disappointment and get your tickets now!