Eureka Day Review (Nottingham Playhouse)

29 October 2025 I 19:00 I Nottingham Playhouse

⭐⭐⭐⭐ I PR - Invite

In its regional premiere, Nottingham Playhouse hosts Jonathan Spector's Tony award-winning play Eureka Day, depicting a fictional parent-teacher conference in a Californian private school. Equating both confrontation and compassion, debate ensues on the school's vaccine policy following a mumps outbreak. James Grieve directs a polarising revival that channels contemporary anxieties from the COVID-19 epidemic, and its impact on our human nature.

Leading a highly sustainable vision, Eleanor Field's design invites audiences into the titular school's library. Adorned with rainbows, bunting and bean bags, an intensely vibrant colour palette is ironically brilliant as grown adults quarrel in a children's environment, perhaps a testament to their immaturity. Incorporating set pieces sourced from local Nottingham schools, an eclectic collection acts as a token for excessive American aesthetic.

Photography Credit: Pamela Raith

Jenna Russell's turn as Suzanne is magnificent in epitomizing the fear-mongering figure of the anti-vaxxer, leading with a steely impression and patronising tone. Drawing from the role's empathy, Russell emotionally invests herself into such a complex character, avoiding crude stereotypes and recognising the importance not to villainise, otherwise we lose the theatrical importance of discussion. These topics are uncomfortable, yet it encourages viewers to acknowledge open discourse.

While negotiating a surprisingly humorous script, Spector's writing is intelligent in covering many social concepts, opening with a non-monogamous relationship (Matt Gavan & Kirsty Rider) to demonstrate the evolving shape of families, and the private lives of those impacted by child illness. Additionally, newest to the committee Carina (Adele James) receives a series of microaggressions being the sole Black member of the board. In a setting that prides itself on being progressive, the privileged setting of a private school and its policies lends itself to great hypocrisy.

Language occasionally feels choppy due to overlaps, stutters and broken sentences in a fragmented text. Variety of pacing is neglected, where a loss of nuance and the inability to pause results in rushed speech patterns. This betters itself across the company as the show progresses its 1hr 45m runtime, unfortunately delivery in the opening scenes comes across as unnatural in a play that thrives on its genuinity.

Photography Credit: Pamela Raith

This production's highlight is the community meeting, championing Matt Powell's video design to replicate an application akin to Zoom (see image for reference). The script becomes subsidiary as our attention is directed to the online comment stream, that develops into an all-out war. These imaginary users cross the line of decency on multiple occasions, and the audience erupt into howls of laughter unlike anything I have heard in the theatre. Don (Jonathan Coy) takes on a Jackie Weaver-esque cluelessness as firework filters explode behind him, everything about the scene is simply ingenious and sentimental to our online lives. This scene alone gets two rounds of applause, which is immensely rare during a play, yet so deserved!

There is much to praise through Grieve's direction of Eureka Day. The production is aware of its own intellectuality, and it can occasionally run away with itself. Nonetheless, Spector's play excels in its ability to satirize a distressing socio-political era of our recent history, albeit indirectly through the mumps vaccine. Its comedy is sympathetic to parental hysteria and cancel culture, in turn promoting the importance of community.

Tickets & Info: https://nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk/events/eureka-day/