First staged in 1955, no play has been more important to the history of Australian theatre than Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. Twenty years later, Lawler returned to his lovable Carlton household and created two more plays: Kid Stakes and Other Times. A joyful portrait of the summer of the first doll, in which a chance encounter brings Olive and Emma, Roo and Barney, into the shabby Carlton terrace to begin a seventeen year journey of seasonal love and argument. Kid Stakes introduces the fun-loving Nancy, who has left the scene by the seventeenth summer, adding a new poignancy to the story.