summer of the seventeenth doll by ray lawler

Roo returns from fetching luggage and seems embarrassed, and Olive gets upset that Roo didn't come to her when he walked out. Roo had fought with a new young employee named Johnnie Dowd after hurting his back. Barney becomes serious and tells Olive that Roo is broke after he walked out on his job two months ago.

Olive gives Barney a telegram from Nancy. Pearl introduces herself as 'Missus Cunningham,' but Olive insists that Pearl go by her first name. Roo and Olive kiss while Barney and Pearl introduce themselves. She tells Pearl to be polite or leave, and pours them both beer.īarney enters the house carrying Emma over his shoulder, and Roo enters behind. Pearl studies the photograph again and says she's not getting involved in a 'nasty mess.' Olive angrily calls Pearl out on playing the part of a respectable mother (Pearl has an eighteen-year-old daughter, Vera), and tries to explain that the layoff season isn't indecent: it's magical and perfect. Bubba is embarrassed as Olive explains that it's an inside joke they play on Roo and Barney, while Pearl continues to act superior and standoffish. Bubba, who has gone to fetch beer, returns as Pearl asks what the candy canes are for. In reply, Pearl insists that Nancy 'made herself cheap' and says that Barney needs to be taken in hand. Olive insists that Nancy made a mistake getting married. Olive comes downstairs and shows Pearl a photo of Barney, Roo, Nancy, and Olive drunk at an amusement park.

The action opens with Bubba tying ribbons on candy canes in the living room (a tradition of the layoff season) while Pearl, dressed in her good black dress, reads a magazine. Bubba lives next door, and was only a small child when the layoff seasons began.

Roo is dating Olive, and Barney usually dates Nancy, but this year Nancy has gotten married and abandoned the layoff season, so Olive has invited her co-worker Pearl as a companion for Barney. Every summer for the last sixteen years Barney and Roo have spent their “layoff season” (when they are released from their jobs cane-cutting for a few months) at Olive’s house, which is owned by her mother, Emma. The play begins with three women- Olive, Pearl, and Bubba (who is younger than the other two)-awaiting the arrival of Barney and Roo.

Summer of the seventeenth doll by ray lawler