Helen Hunt stars in Eureka Day at The Old Vic in London for a limited time

American screen actress Helen Hunt will star in the European premiere of Eureka Day at the Old Vid Theatre in London

The 59 year-old actress who has appeared in films including Twister, What Women Want, and Soul Surfer will star in Jonathan Spector’s multi award-winning off-Broadway play is a timely comedy set during a mumps outbreak in California in 2017. As the school community weighs up questions of vaccination, their democratic utopia is torn apart when polite debate descends into ideological warfare.

Academy, Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner Hunt is the first member of the cast to be announced. Helen Hunt is best known for her film and tv roles include As Good As it Gets opposite Jack Nicholson, erotic comedy drama The Sessions, Cast Away opposite Tom Hanks, What Women Want and tv series Mad About You.

Directed by Katy Rudd (Camp Siegfried, The Ocean at the End of the Lane), the play is a co-production with The Old Vic and Sonia Friedman Productions and will reunite the team behind the highly acclaimed The 47th.

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Matthew Warchus, artistic director of the Old Vic said “Following on from our enjoyable collaboration on The 47th earlier this year, I’m very happy to be working with Sonia Friedman again on this brilliantly wince-inducing, laugh-outloud, timely and volatile satire.”

He continued “I had the privilege of working with Helen Hunt almost 20 years ago on the Broadway transfer of Yasmina Reza’s Life x 3 – it’s truly a joy welcoming her to the Old Vic for this spectacular production.”

Eureka Day runs from 6 September to 31 October 2022 at The Old Vic in London.

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