Saturday 31 May 2025
Review by Paul Neeson (Arts Wednesday)
Consensus is a difficult thing to achieve, especially when it is being used as a weapon to stifle debate and silence opposition. This is one of the many themes explored in Outhouse Theatre Company’s production of Eureka Day running until 21 June at the Seymour Centre.
The play is set in the progressive heart of modern California in a junior school Executive Committee meeting room. The committee members are long time stalwarts who pride themselves on how inclusive and caring their decision making can be. This is until an outbreak of mumps divides them on the issue of vaccination. A hot topic of recent times, Jonathon Spector’s script finds all the hot button issues and pushes them with increasing intensity, from anti-vaxers and trust in science to how easily the democratic process can be undermined by money.
The cast of five delivers the drama to perfection. Don (Jamie Oxenbould) is the chair of the committee who leads with all the virtue he feels they should reflect in their decision making and duty of care for the children and parents they represent. His portrayal is exquisite as a leader who crumples at the first sign of tension. Suzanne (Katrina Retallick) usually controls the conversation by dint of being the loudest voice in the room. Eli (Christian Charisiou) a wealthy Jewish stay-at-home dad who enjoys extra-marital affairs with his superior sense of entitlement. His current affair is with Lim (Deborah An) who struggles to express her opinions in the group. And finally new member to the committee Carina (Branden Christine) a lesbian mum used to dealing with conflict who is perplexed at the ridiculous lengths the group is prepared to go in order to placate absolutely everybody. She is exceptional representing the ‘sensible’ voice in an otherwise aimless debate that is always teetering on the edge of losing touch with harsh reality.
The dialogue was delivered with a West Coast American accent (Dialect Coach, Linda Nicholls-Gidley) I guess to make it clear this situation is not a Sydney one, but that of an easy target: progressive America at its most extreme. (It could just as easily be set in Toorak or Vaucluse.) I’m not sure if the accent softened by the end of the play or if we had just become so used to it that it appeared normal.
One of the best scenes of the work was when the meeting was opened up to the entire school community via the internet. Lighting and Video Designer Aron Murray’s design and timing of the social media responses priceless as the committee imploded and the digital responses became more heated and abusive. Suddenly the touchy-feely intentions of the committee were exposed for what they were, no more than words disassociated from the reality of the community they represent. Director Craig Baldwin’s control of the tempo and dynamics of this scene was pitch-perfect. During all the competing and overlapping abuse and accusations he somehow managed to bring our focus to the most salient element at just the right time.
The denouement drew an acerbic biting adjudication of the processes and values of a democratic group trying to reach consensus. By refusing to change her position in the vitriolic negotiation, Suzanne believed she could determine the outcome single-handedly. But the hypocrisy was exposed when Eli offered to simply buy the outcome he desired, and suddenly a workaround solution was found. So much for inclusive values.
And finally the scene was set to repeat the cycle all over again (with a clever nod to the imminent Covid pandemic)
All up, a brilliant cast delivered a clever exposé of deep flaws in the working of a democratic society with the clever device of the small local situation being a metaphor for the bigger picture.