Jonathan Spector’s American play, a debate, directed by Katy Rudd, takes place at an American private primary school in Berkeley, California. The school is faced with an outbreak of mumps and staff and parents are divided as to whether the children should be or should not be vaccinated.
The surprise is Eureka Day premiered in America in 2018, well before Covid hit.
We live in divisive times. We live in an age of fake news. Spector’s target is the Liberal Left and its shambolic decisions by consensus. The satire is at the expense of a society so politically correct, it can no longer open its mouth without offending somebody.
The high spot, the loudest continuous roar of laughter I have heard in a theatre for a long time, comes at the end of act one when there is a zoom meeting between the school board and the community.
The screen behind and above the actors fills with more and more tweets from parents, which are so funny, so outrageous, so crass, so rude, so accusatory, I wanted to read them immediately all over again.
Helen Hunt, the multi-award-winning American actress, still remembered for her performance in the film As Good As It Gets opposite Jack Nicholson, is making her London stage debut. She is cast as an anti-vaxer, who lost a child and doesn’t trust doctors. The performance, ironically, is interesting precisely because she does not stand out from the rest of the cast.
Hunt is part of an ensemble which includes three other excellent American actors: Mark McKiknney, in khaki short trousers and sandals, is head of the committee. Susan Kelechi Watson is an African-American parent, a newcomer to the committee, bright, intelligent. Ben Schnetzer is loud-mouthed, rich and adulterous. Kirsten Foster lets her knitting needles do all the acting.
If anybody steals the show it is Martin McKinney; but then he has the funniest role: the meek, vapid, well-meaning, but hopelessly ineffectual mediator.
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