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How to make a classic

Why do some plays remain timeless while others quickly date?

22 Apr 2015 12:00

Richard Watts

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Performing Arts

Elena Carapetis and Chris Pitman in STCSA’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. Photo by Shane Reid.

For every play considered a classic there are a dozen others gathering dust on the bookshelf, admired but dated. Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is one play that’s definitely stood the test of time – it is perhaps the most canonical Australian classic of all – but why?

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Richard Watts

Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the 2019 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in early 2020. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association in 2021, and a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Photo: Fiona Hamilton. Follow Richard on Bluesky @richardthewatts.bsky.social and Instagram @richard.l.watts