Eureka Day
It’s a nursery or a school. Doing its best to be inclusive, listening, reaching out and embracing a wide range of opinions, in modern day America. Until Mumps strike and forces the nursery into closure and quarantine…then where does ethics begin and end in the face of a public health crisis?
No idea what to expect at all. What I wasn’t expecting was a vividly lurid nursery set, with paper cut out people in happy circles decorating the walls and floor. Alarmingly some of those paper cuts out (in all kinds of colours) appear to be excluding some, who have siphoned off into one’s or two’s, and some are actively being flung out of the groups or left to float alone in the ether! All is not well in the world of children’s education. It might also be a primary school rather than a nursery!
Amongst the bean bags, miniature chairs and desks staff and parents (a school board maybe) meet to discuss how to move the nursery (or school) forward, through updating school policies. Long timers include Don (Mark McKinney), who seriously reminds me of Bill Oddie — no idea why! All earnest idealism, socks and sandals, empowering hugs and kindliness. Then there is Suzanne (Helen Hunt!) in a variety of lounge wear quick changes — again positive earnestness, really trying to listen and to do the right thing — such as donating most of her home library to the school (or perhaps nursery). New to the team is Carina (Susan Kelechi Watson) who has the job of navigating all the words to be heard (and end the meeting!) There are also parents, May (Kirsten Foster) and Eli (Ben Schnetzer), super organic and very wealthy hipsters, who seem a little too supportive of each other. At each meeting, Don reads some unfathomable poetry for everyone to really feel. Then there are the organic donuts, but no plates!
We join the characters in the midst of a meeting, ensuring that every conceivable characteristic is heard and validated. As one of two ethnically diverse people in the room, Carina is under huge pressure to say and do the right thing, as the new person — to be affirmed and accepted by the group. Eli lies on the floor feeling it! Shoes are mostly off and minds and hearts open! Or are they? There are lots of hidden rules for Carina to navigate or fall into. Thankfully Carina is able to call time due to commitments to be elsewhere and the meeting ends, as does the poetry and knitting.
Eli and May helpfully close up for the others — only it turns out, they want to be alone, together, as they are having an affair. Although Eli is married and both have children by other partners. Not only does he work (probably from home) for Amazon, but Eli has a trendy open marriage, which his wife is apparently fine with. The desire for individualism at any cost is going to have repercussions later on….
We move into the next scene. A letter has to go out to the parents. Don is trying to unite the board (via a flipchart mind shower) to ensure that every view is validated and yet not, as the school has to send that parental letter out informing them of changing circumstances… Do they really want to debate and change the content? As Carina points out not every valid view is valid or deserves to be heard — such as claiming the earth is flat?!!!
It’s a Zoom call! The nursery (or perhaps school) is closed due to an epidemic of… Mumps. The Zoom call in the first act was the funniest thing about the play — just so real; even the way that they gathered around the call. One parent just communicates by emojis (with perfect comic timing). Of course, one is muted and having issues with sound! The parents talk amongst themselves online as Don and team put forward their message. School will be closed for now and then the children can returned once… they’ve been vaxxed. This sparks a huge and nasty spat between vaxxers and anti-vaxxers with all the usual nasty escalated insults being thrown around. No idea what was being said on stage because I was (like the whole audience) laughing too much. The first act ended with us all sniggering even after the lights had gone down and come back up again for the interval!
By comparison the second act was much less funny and lost me a bit. It didn’t have the same energy. The school is now dealing with the fallout from Mumps. Carina is moving from hopeful young Mum and new board member to something much more dangerous. She and Suzanne begin to clash — Suzanne shares with Carina how her first child completely changed after her first-year vaccinations, ultimately dying because of undetected allergic reactions. With two children with a huge gap between them (one at College and one at the school) Suzanne is now determinedly anti-vaxx. Which is awkward when the school is promoting the opposite policy and all the parents are now fighting amongst themselves. The economic consequences are enough to cause the board to want May to ask Eli for money for the school!
Only May and Eli are also in the midst of a huge emotional falllout. Eli’s wife appears to not be so happy about their marriage — repeatedly texting May abusive one-word insults. Eli and May’s children had a play date — May’s unvaxxed child appears to have infected Eli’s son with Mumps, leading to an appalling stay in hospital and devastated parents. Eli’s wife blames May entirely. Eli moves away from May, seeking to be a devoted father at this time. Carina turns politician, using what she knows of Suzanne against her; clearly horrified by Suzanne’s science denial. She likens the anti-vaxxing to the inherit the wind court case — scientific theory should be taught anyhow regardless of what people may choose to believe as individuals, and almost suggests that Suzanne and those like her are deniers of absolute truth. Carina seeks to separate herself from Suzanne by suddenly diving into her phone.
Suzanne is ousted — we only know this because of the empty bookshelf. Only one shelf of books remains! Carina is now confidently, powerfully leading the board discussions, using the same kind of overblown inclusive language as before (and yet how inclusive is she really?)
Suzanne certainly wasn’t as inclusive as she made out to be when she suggests that Carina is only there because of scholarship — Carina is a fully paid-up member of the school. And the underlying racist assumption of this. Suzanne is shown as a reasonably conflicted person, somewhat piecing circumstances together; but also, thoughtful as she lost her daughter apparently due to the vaccination. Science isn’t the flawless thing it appears to be.
The second half did lose me a bit — it doesn’t have the same energy as the first half. But the acting was excellent — I was fully in the world of the school board. Susan Kelechi Watson was wonderful as Carina, moving from trying to sneak off as the meeting seemed to be going on, and on, and on…to breaking the rules by producing plates, ecologically friendly, ethically sourced ones — but plates (to go with the organic donuts). In trying to ensure that everyone was seen and heard, some were definitely more equal than others. As well as the Zoom call horror (and humour), May performed the best aggressive knitting I’ve ever seen in my life during an act two meeting!
I am still concerned for the illustrative gingerbread cut out person being flung away by the group and those floating off into space!
