Eureka Day

Written in 2017 before the dreaded international COVID shutdown, this excellent comedy/drama is prescient about how we should behave in such circumstances. When staff at the privileged Eureka Day Elementary school in California are faced with an outbreak of mumps, they panic in all well-meaning directions displaying, in author Jonathan Spector’s steely view, everything but firm togetherness.

In fact, this very liberal, very upper-crust private school is faced with a total failure of communication among its 5-person council, which must include one entirely new member each year. This year, it’s a bright black woman, Carina (Branden Christine).

The council, set up in the school’s junior library, is ostensibly in the tentative hands of Don (Jamie Oxenbould), a man riven by hilarious compromise and doubt. His main concern is Suzanne (Katrina Retallick), a wealthy donor to the school and long-time quiet mover behind the scenes. 

She’s far harder to cope with than Eli (Christian Charisiou), son of a wealthy local family, who appears to attend meetings for the free buns, and women like May (Deborah An), the latest in Eli’s sight, who is prepared to have passionate meetings whenever the opportunity arises.

Then comes the mumps, and Don and his team move into top gear. This leads to a spectacular scene where we see the five glued to a single computer which is sending its picture to an area above their heads. Also, enlarged, is the written response of up to 50 locals, all buzzing with their reactions. Don struggles to contain his position: the audience needed time to come down from the hilarity of this situation.

When Eli’s son has to go to the Pediatic Ward with his mumps, the pace heats up. This ‘bastion of social justice’ falls completely apart when no one can agree on the facts. Next to come is COVID.

The ability of this five-person cast is outstanding, with a special tipping of the hat to director Craig Baldwin. The setting, by Kate Beere (who also designed the costumes), is exactly right. 

The utopian dream of the welcoming community is hereby squished.

Frank Hatherley

Photographer: Richard Farland