Eureka Day - Old Vic

I'm my opinion, the zoom call is a triumph of form working together with substance.

We all know from social media that the most hostile partisan voices drown out anybody trying to mediate, and this scene reflects that perfectly.

The scene is arranged so that the hostile partisan messages behind the actors draw your attention away from the actors. Because they are more hostile, and because those messages are so obviously heading for conflict, the actors trying to talk sense in front of those messages cannot hold our attention.

The way this mirrors real life (familiar hostile insults, familiar hapless moderators, the inevitability and futility of it all) is what is so funny. We are forced to recognise our own addiction to drama over common sense, when the show demonstrates how instinctive it is to preference the former over the latter.

I particularly loved the running thumb-up emoji joke, which times it's payoff perfectly.

I saw it last night too, it took me a while to get into (I thought it was heading rapidly for 'posh audience laughs at typical 'woke' people on stage' territory but then I really liked it). And I think the zoom effect was deliberate, I don't think it really mattered that we couldn't hear the cast over the laughter, that was sort of the point, the craziness on the screen was supposed to drown out any sort of sensible discussion on stage (which was also descending into chaos anyway).

I did think the ending was a little tagged on but I think it was the only ending that could happen.

Watched this tonight and whilst I didn't think that there was a huge amount of substance to it, I did enjoy it. At the end of the play I didn't really feel like I'd been on any kind of journey with these characters, but it was funny and the Zoom scene was probably my highlight. As partytentdown says, the point of it very much seemed to be to drown out the actual substantive conversation that was trying to take place.

The evening will probably be more memorable for me for the minute's silence that was held at the start. It'll be part of my 'Where were you?' answer when that question inevitably gets asked about today's news in future years. I'd read the news on the Tube on my way there but I heard a few gasps when it was announced that the Queen had died. I also think I broke the news to the doormen when I asked if the performance was still going on!

To add...

I see there are at least nine US States with towns called Eureka, so there is probably no more significance to the playwright's choice of title than that it sets the play in some homogeneous, middle-America municipality.

Then again, I learn from the programme that the setting is Berkeley, California. There were references to that place in the dialogue but it wasn't obvious to me that they were talking about their current location. So, I'm back to wondering why this day school would be called "Eureka Day".

Generally enjoyed it. Took a while to settle but it lifted at the Zoom scene which was very well done. My feeling is that you weren't meant to know or focus on what the people on stage were saying and that it was likely improvved or workshopped, rather than fully scripted - but I could be wrong. I really hope they didn't set the scene thinking there would be silence/no laughter as that would be crazy.
I drifted off a fair bit in the second half as I found it less engaging and overall struggled to really care about any of the characters or the arguments, mainly as they were thinly sketched as characters and I couldn't really tell you much about any of them.
Nice to see her on stage but not sure it needed Helen Hunt (who to my mind played her role on fairly one level with little variation)
Not a big success, not a complete failure. Just a slight feeling of meh at the end and a hope that they could have balanced the acts more evenly and ending more strongly.
3 out of 5 for me.

The school in the play is called Eureka isn’t it?

The PWC scheme (being so affordable) lured me into seeing this a second time tonight, with Pippa Winslow playing the key character of Suzanne, this time, instead of Helen Hunt.

The play still works magnificently, the zoom scene is still masterful, and the ensemble is still universally wonderful.

The difference between Helen Hunt's Suzanne and Pippa Winslow's Suzanne is that Pippa Winslow plays the character on the surface, a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) Suzanne, who is dominating and controlling and forthright and nervy. With this interpretation, you will more easily predict what is going to happen in the plot, so there is less mystery and humour, and more slow-building conflict.

Hunt, by contrast, gave a more layered performance. On the surface, she was more apparently amenable, like Mark McKinney's loveable, people-pleasing, fence-sitting Don, though there was always a suspicion of the stridency of Winslow's Suzanne beneath the surface, hinted at by micro-expressions. With Hunt, you never quite knew what she was thinking, how she would react, and she constantly had me off balance and wondering if and when she'd show her full colours.

Both approaches work, with Winslow's straightforward take bolstering the conflict, and Hunt's layered approach bolstering the unpredictability, humour and mystery of the play.

On another note, I love the character development in Ben Schnetzer's Eli, who bumbles amusingly in the first half, and deepens movingly in the second half.

I also love how much displaced passion Kirsten Foster manages to stuff into her character, May's knitting lol.

If this play has a weakness, it's that it resolves things that in the real world are much more difficult to resolve. But if dear old Billington were still writing reviews, this might be a plus for him, as he couldn't say of this play, as he did if so many, that it asks questions that it never tries to answer.

All in all, I love this play and this cast, even if it is a bit more pat in its resolution than it could have been.

And, oh how wonderful is Susan Kelechi Watson's acting that she says so much by doing so little. Really one of the great economical performances!

Still 4 and a half stars from me.

I was one of the first in for PwC Previews and got central row L in the stalls. I knew practically nothing about the show going in and was expecting Helen Hunt to take on a leading lady role but instead, I was very surprised to see that this was very much an ensemble piece. After the last few years that we've had, I thought this was a very brave decision on Hunt's part to play the role of a woman blinded by her own prejudices towards vaccines/pharmaceuticals. The ending of Act 1 had most of the audience in stitches and my friend who rarely goes to the theatre was raving about the show after which was great to see. I really liked the set too and hope we see more Jonathan Spector going forwards

I really enjoyed this last night. Good fun like others have said, the first half hilarious especially the zoom meeting chat. I don't think it dragged at all. I have recommended the play to my colleague who is a parent of primary school children- she'd relate so much. I think the laughing audience covering up the actors voices was expected and planned as part of the play so I was never concerned I'd missed dialogue, although the chat was so fast it was hard to pick up on all the messages.
My favourite was Susan Kelechi Watson (the main reason I booked for this), other have nailed the nail on the head that she can raise an eyebrow or give a certain look and it conveys so much, without saying a word. Also the most relatable character for me.
Second half more serious but still very good, and I felt that the length was spot on- after a tiring day at work I never felt bored or that it was dragging.

I'm glad to read these positive responses and like alessia says it didn't drag at all (great praise for me - I tend to think everything is 20 minutes too long.) I've recommended the play widely, but then read a couple of lukewarm reviews, so began to worry that it was just me - so glad it wasn't. Watson is an AMAZING actor - I thought she was just perfect in this.

Adding another positive note - I can sort of see where the reviews are coming from in terms of lack of 'weightiness' but I have not laughed so hard in a long time. The first half is very much of the moment and escalates delightfully. And like others have mentioned upthread, the second half is very different with incredibly strong acting. Perhaps slightly too long.

Worth seeing if you can bear more talk of vaccines and herd immunity although nowhere near as incisive as Admissions by Joshua Harmon which is a similar US comedy/drama. But this is a well made play which is good to see.

Thankless role for Helen Hunt.