Dezart Performs has a new home; its own dedicated theatre. For its premiere engagement, director Michael Shaw has mounted a first-class production of a great contemporary play: Jonathan Spector’s EUREKA DAY.
Bold, smart, and unexpectedly tender, under Michael Shaw’s direction, Eureka Day is a razorsharp comedy that also delivers real emotional stakes; its portrait of a progressive school wrestling with a mumps outbreak is funny, timely and humane.
The plot centers on a mumps outbreak that forces the 5-member school board to confront whether to require vaccinations, and Spector mines the tension between consensus-driven idealism and messy human fallibility with wit and compassion.
One of the joys of this play is that the 5 board members, beautifully realized by the entire cast, are three-dimensional people and not just caricatures of liberal, woke parents. Dan (Richard Perloff) is the administrative leader who is earnestly trying to find a solution acceptable to all. Eli (Skylar Gaines) made millions in the Tech industry, is a stay-at-home dad and wants to rely on science to guide their decision. Suzanne (Michelle Miller-Day) wants parents to be able to make their own choices regarding vaccinating their children. Meiko (Joslynn Cortes) is the quietest of the board members who busily knits and listens until she can’t take it anymore and, like a kettle on the stove, she explodes in a cloud of steam and fury. She also happens to be having an affair with Eli. Carina (Tamarra Graham) just recently put her child into the school and is the newest and only African-American board member. At first, she seems a bit incredulous at the extreme PC nature of the group. Jokingly she comments “You can always spot a Eureka Day kid because at soccer games they’re the ones who cheer when the other team scores.”
In the funniest scene in the play, chaos develops as other parents are online for a board meeting to discuss the Board of Health’s request to close the school due to an outbreak of the mumps. As the board is trying to discuss and guide the procedures to a concrete group decision, we see the online comments of the unseen parents getting more divided, nasty, biting and outrageously funny to the point where the Board’s conversation becomes merely a drone of voices as all attention goes to the conversations online.
During the remainder of the play, we get to know the backstories of the board members, some of which are quite moving, thus allowing us, as well as the other board members, to understand their opinions. This, in turn, allows the board, or at least those who remain on the board, to finally reach a well-thought-out decision and put the matter to bed. Ironically, they are sure that all is calm as they start the new school year of 2019-2020.
The play leaves you with lots to think about and possibly allows some fresh perspectives to mingle with your own. This is contemporary, timely theatre at its best!
EUREKA DAY is playing at Dezart Performs new theatre through January 25, 2026. For tickets and further information, visit their website at www.dezartperforms.org