"Eureka Day" by Jonathan Spector.

Nottingham Playhouse.

This is the regional premiere of Jonathan Spector’s Tony Award-winning comedy. 

When a mumps outbreak hits a progressive private school in Berkeley, the well-meaning Board of Directors descends into full-blown chaos trying to create a perfectly inclusive vaccination policy. Spoiler: it does not go well…

Don, played by Jonathan Coy, who would like to take up mime, expresses a great deal of stress through subtle physical movements. He tries to be the peacemaker of the debates. but often only gets a few words out at a time. His chairing of the online debate is brilliantly funny, as is the whole debate itself.

We've all been in Zoom chats etc where everything just goes off track, insults start flying and, in this case, conspiracy theories are everywhere. This scene is very cleverly done with the audience seeing the live stream as well as the comments coming in and the committee live on stage all at the same time. A very technical, and extremely funny scene that really needs a second visit just to watch this piece once more.

Matt Gavan is Eli, a stay at home dad who is having an affair. Eli is a very vocal Committee member who also seems to have trouble sitting still. He is also, we discover as the play progresses, quite an important member of the Committee where funding is concerned and carries a lot of weight where decisions are made and agreed on.

Adele James plays Carina, mother of a student and is a new member of the board. As the play goes on we discover more of Carina's background and home life which also ruffles a few feathers with one of the Committee members.

Kirsty Rider plays Meiko, a single mother who is caught up in the story due to her daughter contracting and spreading the mumps. Often the quietest member of the board but when Meiko speaks out she makes her opinions crystal clear.

Suzanne, a senior founder of the school who sometimes dithers and at times has trouble searching for words, but who works to keep everyone involved and happy, but she has ulterior motives by getting the others on her side. One of those passive-aggressive characters that you get in any "community" gathering where decisions have to be made. Suzanne is played by Jenna Russell.

Hayley Doherty plays Winter. Originally this character didn't exist in the original play but appears right at the end of the play and we see the opportunity for history to be repeated.

Directed by James Grieve, this is one of those plays where gaps in the script and silences are just as important to the pace, the nervous tension and story as the words in the script itself. Facial expressions and the physicality of the characters also bring comedy to the stage with subtlety.

Eleanor Field's Set and Costume Design are both fabulous. The set is akin to an old school library with walls of shelves for the younger children, gorgeous stained glass window, inspirationally motivated posters, plus red plastic school furniture, and the majority of the action takes place in this environment. One of the other scenes may just be an interior wall, door and window, but there's no mistaking where this scene is set. Wonderfully colourful set that made you feel like you've just walked into your past infant/junior school.

Elliott Griggs' lighting design simply separated the scene changes, and as all of the scenes were set in the daylight hours, the lighting design needed nothing fancy. I've often said that simple light designs can be just as effective, especially for a play, thank a fancy one. Well lit and well operated.

Sound Designer and Composer is Lee Affen. Strangely enough for incidental "scene changing" music, this score was really catchy which in turn made the scene changes quite entertaining from a music perspective.

Matt Powell is responsible for the video design we see, and as I stated earlier, this was a big highlight for me. I can't remember seeing this kind of video design in any other play, which brings something new to this area of technical production on stage. It certainly gets the thumbs up emoji from me, as well as Leslie Kaufman!

Who'd have thought that making serious decisions about your children and their health could be this humorous?

"Eureka Day" is at the Nottingham Playhouse until Saturday 15 November.