This truly remarkable play is the first in the history

of the Australian theatre to win for itself an international

reputation and esteem. A sell-out success in London, it

opened in New York, where the critics hailed it for its

vigor, its integrity, and its faithful portrayal of an un-

familiar scene. It tells the story of two itinerant cane-

cutters: Barney, a swaggering little gamecock; and Roo,

the big man, a driver and born leader. They have been

spending their summer lay-offs each year for the past

sixteen with two barmaids in a small city down south;

and every summer Roo has been bringing a tinseled doll

to Olive, his girl, as a gift to symbolize their unusual

but tender relationship. But this seventeenth summer is

one of change and climax, when the old familiar patterns

must be broken, new ways found, and when the charac-

ters must face for the first time certain unpleasant truths

about themselves. How they do so makes for one of the

strongest and most compelling plays in recent theatrical

history.

"One immense virtue of the play is that it always gives

the impression o/having been written out o] the author s

heart and soul and because he had something that he

passionately wanted to say." Richard Watts Jr. in the

Ne-,~ York Post.