Presented as the centrepiece of Red Stitch’s 25th Anniversary Season, and directed by Ella Caldwell (Monument, Oil, The Antipodes) Ray Lawler’s The Doll Trilogy is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness the past and present of Australian storytelling in conversation.
‘Whether you’re encountering Lawler’s characters for the first time or revisiting them with fresh eyes, The Doll Trilogy promises an unforgettable theatrical journey—one that speaks to who we were, who we are, and how the past continues to shape us,’ says Ella Caldwell.
Extra three-play days
Audiences have the rare opportunity to experience Ray Lawler’s The Doll Trilogy in its entirety – performed across a single, unforgettable day.
This full-day theatrical journey unfolds over eight immersive hours, complete with a dedicated lunch and dinner break, inviting you to follow these iconic Melbourne characters as their world transforms across the decades.
This is a rich, rare, and deeply rewarding way to experience this landmark of Australian theatre.
Due to demand they’ve just added two new Trilogy package days starting at 12 noon:
Saturday 28 March and Saturday 11 April
In addition to Saturday 14 February (preview), 28 February & 14th March.
Book now to avoid disappointment
Set in 1937 Depression-era Carlton, Kid Stakes introduces Roo, Barney, Olive and Nancy as young dreamers on the cusp of love and possibility. With humour, warmth and youthful bravado, the play captures the first sparks of the seventeen-year summer ritual that will define their lives. Olive’s mother Emma, accustomed to living through hard times, offers her wry perspective, while the young next door neighbour Bubba eagerly watches on.
Full of humour, optimism and restless energy, Kid Stakes is a sparkling entry into Lawler’s trilogy, capturing the boldness of youth and the dreams of a nation poised on the brink of change.
It’s 1945, and the world has shifted. The war is ending, but its effects are written on the lives of Roo, Barney, Olive and Nancy. Bubba is now grown, and her youthful idealism is confronted by the harsh realities of post-war Melbourne. Emma, usually the voice of pragmatism, takes a leap into something new.
Other Times explores fractured loyalties, the evolving roles of women, and the tensions between freedom and responsibility. Woven with humour, tenderness and grit, Lawler’s play reveals how working class Australians navigated love, work, and survival in extraordinary times.
1953. For sixteen summers, Roo and Barney have returned to Carlton to share a life of laughter, love and independence with Olive and Nancy. But this seventeenth summer feels different.
Nancy is gone, Roo is weary, Barney restless, and Olive is determined to live on her own terms. Emma, now sharp-eyed and unsentimental, sees how choices echo across generations. Bubba longs for her turn in the spotlight, while Pearl – brought in by Olive in an attempt to replace Nancy – becomes an unwitting catalyst for reckoning. Lauded as a “watershed moment” for Australian theatre, The Doll shattered tradition by telling an Australian story in an Australian voice. Heartbreaking and iconic, it lays bare the fragility of dreams alongside the courage it takes to imagine life differently.
See full details of the Red Stitch season 2026
The production of The Doll Trilogy is proudly supported by TWiSK.
