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Through character development the author displays the teenage nature of the characters, the characters want to be ‘forever young’. The character of Bubba displays this concept as she grew up as each year of the layoff went past, The author wanted to display how old traditions change as time goes on such as the change in the lay off as Nancy leaves to get married, starting the change.

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"That's what the lay-off is. Not just playing around and spending a lot of money, but a time for livin'. You think I haven't sized that up against what other women have? I laugh at them every time they try to tell me. Even waiting for Roo to get back is more exciting than anything they've got."

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Roo Webber – Roo is a "ganger" (boss) of sugarcane cutters in northern Australia. He's the best of the best at his job and takes great pride in this fact. Every layoff season, from December to April, he and his best friend, Barney, head south to spend their time off with Olive and Nancy. As the seasons go by the circumstances of the lay off change, Roo had a challenging season starting many changes to come.

Olive Leech – Olive is a thirty-seven-year-old, happily employed barmaid who lives with her mother, Emma, in Carlton, Victoria. Olive looks forward to the layoff season when her lover, Roo, and Roo's friend Barney visit and spend five months vacationing away from the cane fields where they work.

Pearl Cunningham – Pearl is one of Olive's co-workers at the pub, though she's much less content with her position than Olive is. Pearl is a widow about Olive's age with an eighteen-year-old daughter named Vera, and she hopes to marry Barney.

Barney Ibbot – Barney is Roo's best friend. Though Olive describes him as being short, the stage directions indicate that he's only short in relation to Roo.

Bubba Ryan – Bubba is a twenty-two-year-old young woman who lives next door to Emma. She's been joining in on the layoff season festivities since she was a small child and views Barney and Roo as uncles

Emma Leech – Emma is Olive's seventy-year-old mother. She allows the layoff season shenanigans to take place at her home in Carlton, Victoria, and Olive lives with her the rest of the year.

Johnnie Dowd – Roo hired Johnnie to replace Tony Moreno in the cane fields up north. He's a young, strong, and burly man.

Nancy – Nancy was one of the original four who stayed at Emma's house for the layoff season. Though she never appears in the play—she married several months before the seventeenth layoff season—the other characters mention her often. S

Tony Moreno – Tony is a man that Roo fires in the cane fields and then replaces with Johnnie Dowd. Though his age is never stated, he's likely around Roo's age, and it's this that finally makes Roo realize he's old. Tony never appears in the play.

Vera – Vera is Pearl's eighteen-year-old daughter. She never appears in the play herself.

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as the play progresses, the idea of reality vs illusion is implied that there is a continuous belief that the characters are able to feel young or continue their youth at their ages. During the play the actions of the characters create the different atmospheres, during the second act, they discuss the past descriptions of the males the came down for the lay-off season, as they are described as eagles. They realization of how the house is portrayed by an outside opinions influenced the change of behavior for everyone, all the decorations were removed, the relationship between the males was damaged, the entire mood for the entire house was affected negatively.
Notes
- how does author connect characters to context,
- how does the actions of the characters protray the concepts

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"All right, but the least you can do is to see what you've got as it really is. Take a look at this place now you've pulled down the decorations - what's so wonderful about it? Nothing! It's just an ordinary little room that's a hell of a lot the worse for the wear. And if you'd only come out of your day dream long enough to take a grown up look at the lay off, that's what you'd find with the rest of it."

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"It's going to be just the same, isn't it? I mean, you'll still be going to Selby at Christmas time, and - and all the rest. You won't alter anything?"

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to do with the stage directions this play is very thought out with little to no room for improvement of your own piece. although you could change all of them in the original script it is very clear when a character needs to be sitting down, exiting and entering. the stage directions are also very demanding on how the actor must act in the current situation they are left in the scene. this gives the actor no time to use instinct because they have already been told how to react.

the script directions were written to convey a specific sort of feel.  this leaves no room for the actor to work on instinct because the emotions they should feel are written on the page so they don't adapt it to their own ways.

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"We come down here for the lay-off, five months of the
year, December to April. That leaves another seven
months still hangin'—what d'yer reckon Olive does in that time?
Knocks around with other blokes, goes out on the loose every
week? No, she doesn't, she just waits for us to come back
again—coz she thinks our five months is worth all the rest of the
year put together!"

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A man's wage was usually quite sufficient to pay the rent or mortgage and support the family. As a rule, the purchase price of a home was between 4 and 5 times a man's annual wage, and lenders would not accept a home loan application if the repayments exceeded one quarter of the man's income.

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Aesthetic features that reinforce the theme.

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Aesthetic features that reinforce the theme.

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- Call back to past

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"Oh, of course I've never been here, it's just the reputation that's been built up among the boys. I reckon you could say it's alsmost famous, up north."

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Olive invites Pearl (coworker), to keep a summer routine instead of leaving the past routine in the past and creating a new routine that matches their age.

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The characters that spend the off season in the house, are wrapped up in the illusion that they will forever spend the summer acting like their 17 year old selves. When in reality their relationships are growing older and apart.