Worthy of Wilde: Eureka Day, at the Old Vic, reviewed

Eureka Day is a topical satire set in a woke school in America. An outbreak of mumps has led to calls for a vaccination programme that will prevent the school from being quarantined and shut down entirely. The script, written in 2018, has acquired new layers of meaning since the Covid terror. It opens with a playful sketch in which four white teachers and a black parent try to agree how many ethnic categories should be recognised by school officials. Their friendly conversation conceals a toxic seam of racial suspicion and hostility. The writer, Jonathan Spector, is probably a rock-sold liberal who wants the world to know that the woke cult has gone too far. The play’s highlight is a 20-minute passage of comedy which reaches a peak of hilarity that would make Oscar Wilde envious. It’s that good. There wasn’t a soul in the theatre not convulsed with laughter.

The scene involves a live-streamed debate about the vaccination policy. Some parents view the jab as a safeguard, others see it as a threat to their kids’ health. During the discussion, their online comments are flashed up on a wall behind the actors’ heads. At first the mood is co-operative and welcoming. Then the temperature rises and a few insults are traded. Some parents offer scientific theories that are challenged by other parents with better theories. The atmosphere thickens. Gentle sarcasm gives way to angry abuse. Inevitably someone makes a reference to Hitler, which elicits a retort. ‘We have a winner! First mention of the Nazis.’ The language descends into the gutter and the parents issue foul threats against the kids of other parents. In a few spare minutes, a friendly conversation has turned into a savage, murderous dispute.