About the Show

Set at a private school in Berkeley, CA, this east coast premiere from Colt Coeur dives into the vaccination debate and asks: how do you find consensus when you can’t agree on the facts?

From the show:

Carina has just enrolled her son at EUREKA DAY School in Berkeley, CA, where all decisions are made by consensus, diversity and inclusion are valued, and vaccinations are a personal matter. As a freshman member of the private school’s board of directors—one position is always reserved for a new parent so no one gets too calcified in their thinking—she is thrown into the deep end when a mumps outbreak hits the school, forcing parents to choose between their own personal beliefs and what might be best for the community. Opening the discussion up to online trolls during a Facebook Live meeting only moves the committee further away from answering EUREKA DAY’s—and our era’s—most pressing question: how do you find consensus when you can’t agree on the facts?

Critic Reviews (9)

CRITIC’S PICK "Review: Opinions Collide in the Explosive Comedy ‘Eureka Day’: Jonathan Spector’s lively portrait of a debate over mandatory vaccinations is the perfect play for our age of disagreement."
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4/5 Stars "Under Adrienne Campbell-Holt's alert direction, Spector and the expert cast extract comic gold from the little tugs-of-war for control among the members of the committee. But in the second act, this comedy of manners yields to a serious probing of interpersonal responsibility and the limits of consideration."
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"One is struck by Spector's remarkable facility for skewering his characters' affectations while allowing them their humanity. It's a pretty devastating combination and it helps to explain why " 'Eureka Day' is both loaded with laughter and armed with plenty to say about the way we live now."
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5/5 Stars "Jonathan Spector's Cyclonically Funny Outrageous New Comedy: The invasion of the anti-vaxxers, from-where else?-Berkeley"
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"'A comical Clash from the Current Culture Wars': A smart new comedy takes a satirical shot at the antivax issue"
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"Jonathan Spector's Eureka Day now at Walkerspace is a blisteringly satiric and provocative play torn right out of the headlines. Ostensibly about how one progressive elementary school handles a case of mumps due to many anti-vaxxers, the play also tackles many other hot button topics."
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"'Eureka Day'.,.gives the incipient fall season a well-needed shot in the arm with its clever way of exploring the ramifications of compulsory vaccinations… Politesse in the name of political correctness has rarely been so finely shaded…Deserves a longer life."
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"What could go wrong at a private school whose board of directors (all five of them) make all decisions based on consensus and have only what benefits the community at heart. What happens, indeed, when a mumps outbreak at the school forces the board to examine the facts about vaccinating infants and herd immunity?"
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Trailer

Creative team

Adrienne Campbell-Holt

Director