Theatre / 21 Hearts: Vivian Bullwinkel and The Nurses of the Vyner Brooke, by Jenny Davis. At Theatre 180, Australian War Memorial, until August 3. Reviewed by ALANNA MACLEAN.

21 Hearts: Vivian Bullwinkel and The Nurses of the Vyner Brooke makes a highly appropriate play to open the Australian War Memorial’s new theatre space.

Jenny Davis has written a tight and moving telling of Vivian Bullwinkel’s story and has also given the right kind of weight to her fellow nurses who did not survive the World War II massacre by the Japanese on Banka Island.

Having been evacuated from Singapore and having survived the sinking of the Vyner Brooke 22 nurses were forced to walk into the sea and were machine gunned. Vivian Bullwinkel survived to bear witness. This play honours and continues her testimony, though Bullwinkel herself died in 2000.

There’s a certain lovely WA flavour to the telling which is fair enough given the origin of the performing company. More tellingly there’s the flavour of the 1940s, the language and the jokes and the attitudes, that is rather endearing as well as placing the events in time. And a passing reference to the marriage bar reminds of some of the constraints under which these women served. These nurses are people who would have to leave their jobs if they married.

Rebecca Davis as the strong, capable Vivian leads the narrative with perception and a necessary humour in the face of great tragedy. Caitlin Beresford-Old, Michelle Fornasier, Alex Jones, Helen Searle and Alison van Reeken are impressively versatile in evoking the people and the times. The language and the attitudes among the nurses, their various background stories, their courage and their humour all serve to make this piece of history live.

Alison van Reeken is particularly noticeable as Little Bet, the child in the camps who grows into a teenager, still imprisoned but sustained by Vivian’s resilience and that of the older women.

The set (designer Stuart Halusz) is basic but allows for much evocative use of slides and film (visual design Gneiss Design). Sound design (Ben Collins) backs all of this up at times unnervingly and Ingrid Zurzolo’s costumes have the right period look, right down to the hair.

There’s also some powerful live use of the musical performances run by fellow captive Margaret Dryburgh that sharpens the atmosphere of imprisonment.

Good to see that this show is settling in until August 3, which should give it a chance to be widely seen, especially by school students.