Ray Lawler

Raymond Evenor Lawler OBE (born 23 May 1921) is an Australian actor, dramatist, producer and director. His most notable play was his tenth, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1953), which had its premiere in Melbourne in 1955. The play changed the direction of Australian drama.[1] The story of The Doll is preceded by Kid Stakes, set in 1937, when the characters of The Doll are young adults, and then Other Times, which is set in 1945 and includes most of the same characters.

Ray Lawler
BornRaymond Evenor Lawler
(1921-05-23) 23 May 1921
Footscray, Melbourne, Australia
Occupation
  • Playwright
  • director
  • actor
  • producer
NationalityAustralian
Notable works
A metal plaque set in the sidewalk at Circular Quay in Sydney commemorating author Ray Lawler as part of the Sydney Writers Walk series

Early life

Lawler was born in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray on 23 May 1921, second of eight children of a council worker. He left school at 13 to work in a factory and attended evening acting classes. He wrote his first play at 19, and his play Hal's Belles had good notices in early 1946. It was described as "...easy to stage and is a slick, finished work", then being offered by J. and N. Tait in London and New York.[2]

Career

He first attracted attention as a writer in 1952 when his play Cradle of Thunder was presented by the National Theatre Competition. In 1955, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll gained first prize in the Playwright Advisory Board Competition with Oriel Gray’s The Torrents and was subsequently presented by the Union Theatre. Lawler played the role of Barney at the premiere of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll in 1955.[3] The play was taken up by the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust and presented in all Australian states as well as London and New York. It won the Evening Standard Award for the best new play on the London stage in 1957. Since then it has been translated into many languages and performed in many countries.

Lawler went to London with the cast and lived in Denmark, England and then in Ireland. Summer of the Seventeenth Doll was followed by The Piccadilly Bushman (1959), presented in Australia by J. C. Williamson’s and published by Angus & Robertson (1961); The Unshaven Cheek, presented at the 1963 Edinburgh International Festival; and A Breach in the Wall, about St Thomas Becket (televised in 1967,[4] produced at Canterbury in 1970).

In 1972, he visited Australia for the Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of The Man Who Shot the Albatross, a version of the Governor Bligh story.

In 1975, Lawler returned to settle in Australia as associate director of the Melbourne Theatre Company, with an agreement to complete a trilogy based on Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. The first play, Kid Stakes, opened in December 1975 and the second, Other Times, in December 1976. The Doll Trilogy had its first full performance at the Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne, on 12 February 1977.

Personal life

Lawler married actress Jacklyn Kelleher in 1956. They had twins sons, Adam and Martin, born in London in May 1957, and a subsequent daughter, Kylie.[5][6]

Honours and legacy

Lawler was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1980.[7] The smaller theatre space, the Lawler, in the Melbourne Theatre Company's Southbank Theatre is named after him.

Works

Stage
  • Cradle of Thunder (1949)
  • The Bluff and the Fair (1952 - a reworked version of Hal's Belles, 1945)
  • The Adventures of Ginger Meggs (1952, children's musical)
  • Tram Stop 10! (1954, co-writer of revue)
  • Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1955)
  • Return Fare (1955, co-writer of revue)
  • The Piccadilly Bushman (1959)
  • The Unshaven Creek (1963)
  • A Breach in the Wall (1970)
  • The Man Who Shot the Albatross (1971)
  • Kid Stakes (1975)
  • Other Times (1976)
  • Godsend (1982)

References
  1. "Ray Lawler." Encyclopædia Britannica. retrieved 8 December 2006
  2. "Melbourne Letter." Kalgoorlie Miner. 1 January, 1946. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  3. Ray Lawler at the Internet Broadway Database
  4. A Breach in the Wall (1967) at IMDb
  5. "Twin sons for "Doll" parents". The Australian Women's Weekly. 25 (4). 3 July 1957. p. 3. Retrieved 15 June 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. "Author of "The Doll" comes home". The Australian Women's Weekly. 43 (27). 3 December 1975. p. 5. Retrieved 15 June 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. "It's an Honour - Honours - Search Australian Honours". www.itsanhonour.gov.au. Retrieved 2016-06-13.
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