Heartworm

‘Heartworm’ was written by Equity Award winning actor, Shirley Van Sanden. Shirley is also in receipt of multiple AWGIE nominations for her writing. ‘Heartworm’ is her first self-authored ‘Solo Spot’, and earlier this year she performed the fundamentals of this play in the ‘Barefaced’ collection; it has since been developed with the assistance of Stages (The WA Playwrights’ Consortium). This is a Blue Room Theatre and Blue Moose (World First) presentation, showing in The Blue Room Theatre main theatre, 53 James Street, Northbridge until Saturday 26^th November, with all shows at 7.00 pm.

       Standing in the airport at some unearthly hour of the morning, waving goodbye to her husband Chris, who is off to yet another conference stands Ann Hill, a veterinary surgeon. At last he goes through the scanning arch and disappears. With some relief, Ann is free to go to the gym. 

      The benefits of the exercises soon vanish when she returns to one of her two practices and finds a Dirofilaria immitis sufferer. However, it isn’t the dog that is the problem, but its owner Mr Forbes. 

      Ann loves the animals, but with a household of progeny animals at home things can be tough.

‘Heartworm’ is superbly written story which takes us from the routine of everyday, to confronting situations and tragedy. This 75-minute one-man play was filled with fascinating topics, fresh ideas, comedy and poignant moments. A rich script crammed full with several original themes.

Directed by Craig Williams and herself, Shirley kept the pace moving rapidly, perhaps a little too rapidly at the beginning, but the performance was energy-packed as she ran around the stage filling the air with her magnetism. With an expressive face and various accents, from Kiwi to cockatiel, she grabbed the audience and held their interest without a single flicker in her performance.

The stage and walls were black, the only props being a scarlet chair and a table, however the wonderful graphics (Alex Manfrin) and the exciting video (Nancy Jones) added a backdrop to each scene. The first-class soundscape (Craig Williams) was complex and accurate, with Shirley being in total sync.

Shirley’s costume was a smart black, A-line skirt and black polka dot blouse – and scarlet shoes with smiling cats’ faces on the toes. Beautiful.

A very good clever play, abounding with interest and splendidly performed. An amazing performance.