Eureka Day – 13 December 2024

Politically, residents of the United States of America are in an interesting time with a lot of polarization around extreme views. Yet we tend not to think that our own views and values might be taking things too far—that is to say, we rarely see ourselves as part of the problem, especially when the problem in question is inclusivity. Eureka Day is a bold addition to this Broadway season because it paints a hilarious picture reminding us that true inclusivity involves including everybody, even if their actions might be harmful to society. There is such a thing as too much sensitivity, and the dilemmas faced in this play expose what can happen when we let safety slide in favor of respecting people’s beliefs.

In Eureka Day, a private elementary school confronts the consequences of a policy allowing parents not to vaccinate their children if they don’t want to as a matter of personal agency when there is a mumps outbreak. Time is wasted out of a desire to include all voices in the school community when deciding matters of public health and safety. There is a hilarious scene in which the principal and board members hold a live stream to open the forum for community members to put their opinions in the chat. The audience on the night that I attended the performance was laughing so hard at the anti-vaxxers and the pro-science population going at it in the comments (projected above the stage) that I could not hear the actors. Though what they are saying not really mattering may have been part of the point, I struggled with the duration of this scene because it was too long and contained some characters exposing where they stood on the issue that could easily have been missed. Though I was watching and inferring some of the content, it would have been nice to have a little amplification for their voices as part of the live stream, just so that audience members who wanted to try to follow the characters on stage in addition to a fairly typical online argument would not feel like we were missing something. Despite that, the projected argument was genuinely hilarious and relatable, and using the names of members of the production team as the other parents at the school was a nice touch.

The procedures and policies of the onstage committee took political correctness to an extreme, but true cultural sensitivity was unachievable because at the end of the day, policy makers like Suzanne (Jessica Hecht) were really using political correctness as a mask to advance their own interests and agenda; her attitude towards not vaccinating children would not be embraced in other places, so she devoted her life to creating a place where it would be. Racial sensitivity was a good mask for openness and acceptance of all beliefs, even those where the choice not to vaccinate might severely affect other students and their families. It was clear that Suzanne did not practice what she preached regarding sensitivity because she boldly assumed multiple times during the play that Carina (Amber Gray) was receiving financial aid because she was a queer woman of color.

Radical inclusivity and complete cultural acceptance can be inherently disrespectful in the way that they fail to erase judgment. Blanket acceptance does not erase blatant curiosity, and unlearning the boundaries that people of various cultures find important can lead to the inappropriate assumption that people who are in the know about a particular belief set can cross those boundaries because they know how to do it respectfully. They can’t, but acknowledging differences can be difficult when false equivalences make everything seem similar.

This show has me on my soap box because I recognized the characters from other spaces that I am a part of and have been a part of. It was fun to watch them all make fools of themselves, dying on nonexistent hills and caring only about themselves. Eureka Day took a societal phenomenon that I find intimidating, and lovingly reminded me that, in a ridiculous world, it’s okay to take a moment to laugh at how outrageous our extremes really are. Magnificently, the show holds space for people who change, like Meiko (Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz), and people who don’t, like Don (Bill Irwin).  Meiko was changed by physically seeing the disease her unvaccinated child spread almost kill her lover, Eli (Thomas Middleditch)’s child. It took a personal tragedy for Meiko to acknowledge that the world contains people who can be harmed by her beliefs. Suzanne never does, though her personal trauma regarding the death of her first born is a truly touching moment that gives pause to the audience, though it doesn’t change Carina’s mind.

In the end, it was exceptionally profound that the person who built the school, Eureka Day, from the very beginning was the one who had to leave to make way for new ideas and a drastically shifting world. It’s sad that the school could not accommodate Suzanne’s fringe beliefs about vaccines, but it was comforting to me as an American in our current political chaos to see what I believe is the correct outcome: requiring your children to be vaccinated to obtain herd immunity and protect your community from diseases that we have enough scientific data to fully understand. The hard dose of reality was that this decision reached its consensus based on the demands of Eli as the large donor keeping the school operating. In the end, every value created at Eureka Day was false. The right decision was made for very wrong reasons. At the end of the day, nobody’s voice was heard except the person writing the check. I found this delightful microcosm of life to be exceptionally accurate. I celebrate playwright Jonathan Spector’s courage to tell the truth of how life is, not how we want it to be.

I attended this performance on a press pass from The Press Room.