‘Eureka Day’ Review: Timing Is Almost Everything for This Vaccine Comedy Starring Helen Hunt in London
David Benedict Jonathan Spector’s 2018 comedy “Eureka Day” first attracted attention in productions in Berkeley and Brooklyn. But in its sharp U.K. premiere starring Helen Hunt, this often very funny satire about parental attitudes to an outbreak of mumps has suddenly leapt into focus — since it’s really about fiercely personal, highly politicized responses to enforced vaccination. This depiction of over-articulate parents fighting it out in initially polite then savage dialogue (now playing at the Old Vic in London) owes a huge debt to Yasmina Reza’s more caustic “The God of Carnage,” but anyone searching for proof that timing is everything need look no further. “You can always spot a Eureka Day kid because at soccer games they’re the ones who cheer when the other team scores.” So says Carina (ideally poised Susan Kelechi Watson), the parent new to the private California school which gives the play its otherwise obscure title. Attracted by the school’s dedication to its “social justice component,” Carina has been newly elected to the executive board, whose deliberations in a perkily-colored children’s schoolroom form the play.