Susan Kelechi Watson, left, and Helen Hunt in Eureka Day at The Old Vic
(Picture: Manuel Harlan)Although Oscar-winner Helen Hunt is the big name in Jonathan Spector’s sly US comedy about freedom and tolerance, it’s really an ensemble piece where the star is the incisive, witty script. Eureka Day is a Californian private school so painfully right-on the parents self-police their language for inclusivity and their doughnut choices for sustainability.
But when mumps breaks out and it transpires some kids have been left deliberately unvaccinated, this self-regarding community of consensus fractures. First staged in Berkeley – where else? – in 2017, and Off-Broadway in August 2019, the play’s arguments have since become more acute. It’s slightly schematic but laugh-out-loud funny and nowhere near as one-sided as you might expect.
