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The Dolly Subsequent Productions...exquisitely intense theatre... a play guaranteed to shatter the placid equilibrium of middle class existence and fire one’s sense of social awareness... deserves to be remembered, and remembered, and remembered.... There are occasionally in theatre those isolated seconds of energy where the tension shimmers around the audience creating an electrifying ambience of complete silent symbiosis... The emotional jolt reverberates in one’s memory... a vividly shattering must-see! Toronto Tonight ...a tough and important play... taut and remorseless... There hasn’t been a play like this before. Toronto Globe and Mail ...riveting account of a family’s secret struggle... which held its opening-night audience spellbound... and ultimately provoked them to fierce applause.... As an example of the sustained breathholding silence to which an audience so moved can be reduced, Tuesday night was a rare experience. Sacramento Bee This production at The Third Stage has a double edge – it's almost unbearable to watch as horrific events develop, but you remain riveted to the action, as if transfixed with anxiety at what may happen next... playwright Robert Locke has developed characters that bristle with tension, fear and confusion. http://allegrophoto.com/thedolly.htm 
In 1985 The Dolly was performed again at ACT, this time with a completely new cast on the mainstage of the Geary Theatre. It was the first time in the history of ACT that a new play had gone through the Play-in-Progress program and been selected for a premiere on the mainstage. To see my play performed by such marvellous actors in this historic San Francisco theatre in front of an audience of more than a thousand people was a huge thrill for me, night after night for the six week run. Barbara Dirickson received the Best Actress award from the Bay Area Theatre Critics for her performance as Deborah, Ray Reinhardt received the Best Supporting Actor award for his portrayal of the sodden child molesting grandfather Byron, and I received the Best Original Script award for my work. The Dolly was performed several more times in several different cities across the United States and Canada. Whereverit was performed it won local drama awards for its actors and actresses and often, too, for me as playwright. Below is a picture of the supremely talented Karen Leigh and Jim Thornton from the production in Nevada City which I directed. Karen won Best Actress in a Drama and Jim was nominated Best Actor in a Drama from the Sacramento Area Regional Theatre Alliance. Also nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Actress were Floyd Perry-Thistle and Karen Kerouac as Byron and Inez. As the play could no longer be considered an “original script” because of its many productions, I was not nominated as playwright but did receive a nomination as Best Director. The Dolly was named Best Production of a Drama for that year. 
Notice Karen’s hands: once again that shimmering tension as Deborah tries to be a good wife to a man who repels her. This “love scene” will be interrupted by the sleepy Susan who comes into the living room dragging her dolly, calling “Mommy!” The symbol of the dolly is more complex than many reviewers realize. The dolly is not just Susan, the little girl besmirched by her grandfather. The dolly is also Deborah—and all women—by turns put up on a pedestal and then thrown into a heap in the corner, to be played with at the whim of their masters. The dolly is also all the men in the play, playing the parts they have been given by our society. For this production which I myself directed (and so therefore could explore the script more fully without having to deal with a go-between director) I added the following dialogue:
Lest you begin to believe that the men in The Dolly are all brutes—a statement which always makes me quite frustrated with audiences, their tolerances, and their need to cast villains where there be heroines— I show you here a tender moment between the main male character Laird and his mother Inez. It is a complex mother/son relationship where she has always held herself back from reaching for him, afraid that she would always come second in his mind to his father Byron, the grandfather who starts the whole terrible story by “touching” his granddaughter. Pictured are Pat Shread playing Inez and Dennis Curry playing the confused father-husband-son Laird in the Sacramento production of The Dolly. Both Pat and Dennis were nominated for acting awards for their performances. Director Ray Tatar won the award for Best Director of a Drama for his sterling work on The Dolly. 
Here is the O’Hare Family in the Burbage Ensemble production in Los Angeles. Pictured are Kevin Hagen as Byron, Elizabeth Hoffman as Inez, Denise Galik as Deborah, Kara Joy as the child Susan, and Bruce Economou as Laird. Denise was honored in the DramaLogue Awards as Best Actress in a Drama and Elizabeth Hoffman as Best Supporting Actress. 
And here is the real life dolly from the mainstage production from ACT. Notice that the age is changed from 6 to 7 to suit the older actress in this larger production (who was in fact 9 years old). I preferred to have a real 6-year-old playing the part (see below) as it made the horror of the incestuous child molestation even more pronounced. I also preferred the play in smaller venues so that audiences felt as though they were actually in Deborah and Laird’s living room. 
Here are Sandy Hillard and Chloe, the daughter of a good friend of Sandy’s. In productions with a real 6-year-old playing Susan, the natural shyness and timidity of the child along with her rambunctiousness, so cute and funny at first, turns the blood icy as Susan’s story begins to unfold. It’s delicate directing a 6-year-old with such an intimate theme, and we always had the parent(s) involved. In my production in Nevada City the actress who played Susan was the Assistant Director’s daughter. The symbol of the dolly always played prominently on the programs and other promotional materials: 
Copyright © 2004 Robert Locke |