Bill Irwin, Thomas Middleditch, Amber Gray, Jessica Hecht, Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz (Photo: Jeremy Daniel)

Eureka Day

By Julia Polinsky

 

Funny/not funny, and timely as hell, Eureka Day pokes hard at the vaccination debate.

Manhattan Theatre Club, known for producing plays that deal with difficult subjects, somehow makes even the thorniest controversies deeply entertaining. They have done it again: Jonathan Spector's Eureka Day mercilessly satirizes the aggressively woke parents and board members at Eureka Day, an upscale private school in Berkeley, California, that epicenter of social justice.

It's the 2018-19 school year, and the board of Eureka Day has a start-of-the-year board meeting in the library of ED. Seated on child-size chairs (terrific scenic design by Todd Rosenthal), they look a little ridiculous. The subjects of the books in this library, some donated by board members, are divided into "Non-Fiction" "Fiction" and "Social Justice" sections, with Social Justice front and center. It is Berkeley, after all.

Don (Bill Irwin), the uber-woke head of the five-member board of Eureka Day, manages debate of such things as inclusive language with all the intensity of a UN discussion of weapons of mass destruction. He makes a point of instructing the newest member on how the board must reach consensus; it's in the bylaws.

That's fine when it's discussion of language on the student application. However, in the second board meeting, Don has to handle a heavier crisis: the school has been shut down because of a mumps outbreak, and the board of health has a letter that appears to require vaccination to attend school. Eureka Day will remain closed for the time being, as it has no vaccination requirement. The board is in crisis, especially since it's possible that parents on one side of the issue or another may pull their kids and their tuition money. Financial collapse looms.

The other board members present at this meeting -- Eli (Thomas Middleditch), Carina (Amber Gray), and Suzanne (Jessica Hecht), politely talk around the subject of vaccinations, until the fifth member, Meiko (Chelsea Yakura-Hurtz). arrives late. It seems her (unvaccinated) daughter is not feeling well, with a swollen face; maybe she's gluten intolerant?

Seeking consensus with the parents, the board opens community conversation in a Zoom, which shouldn't be funny, but is; the audience howls with laughter as the comments displayed on a screen behind Don (projections: David Bengali) quickly becomes what we are all familiar with: the off-the-rails flame war comment trail of people who are not listening to each other and will never, ever reach consensus. That the board is still talking among themselves but cannot be heard over the audience's reaction layers on yet more irony. In a pre-Covid world, this experience shocks the kinder and gentler among the board members. The audience, having been there/done that, laughs.

Thomas Middleditch, Amber Gray, Bill Irwin Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz, Jessica Hecht (Photo: Jeremy Daniel)

At the same time the board of Eureka Day clings to the jagged precipice of consensus around the vaccination issue, it also tips into the chasm of intolerance. As Tolstoy famously said, "Tout comprendre, c'est tout pardoner:" to understand all is to forgive all. That saying applies here, until it doesn't. It's astonishing how quickly the board members reveal their ironclad opinions about vaccines, which are, naturally, not all the same. Backstories reveal why, but they do not encourage consensus, that holy grail of the Eureka Day board. "No one is a villain, here," repeated time and again, seems to be a defense, when it's not an outright falsehood.

Amber Gray, Jessica Hecht, Bill Irwin, Thomas Middleditch (Photo: Jeremy Daniel)

Director Anna D. Shapiro does not shy away from letting her actors look bad if it makes the play hit harder. Clint Ramos has done superb costume-is-character design, from Suzanne's floaty puffy dresses to Don's bland corduroys-and-hoodies invisibility. Charming, doodly-doot-doot between-the-scenes music from Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen is as childlike and colorful as the school library and some of the board members themselves. Note-perfect performances from the cast make these people feel like someone you'd meet at a PTA meeting.

Eventually, a careful reading of the bylaws provides a solution to the board's seemingly insoluble impasse. Before that, though, one board member's (vaccinated) child has been hospitalized with the disease. One has declared absolute adherence to an inflexible position. Financial rescue comes at a price. Several cringe-y micro-aggressions are aimed at the one Black member of the board. People do not become their best selves.

At the end of Eureka Day, the catchphrase, "No one is a villain here," has borne out, at least as far as the people on the board are concerned. Perhaps the villainy is the endless waffling of people avoiding conflict and confrontation rather than just dealing with it.

Eureka Day

At Manhattan Theatre Club

261 W. 47^th St, Manhattan

Running time: 95 minutes, no intermission

Tickets: https://www.telecharge.com/Eureka-Day-Tickets