Review: EUREKA DAY at Riffe Center Studio 2

The quieter we become, the more we can hear

--Rumi

Through the play EUREKA DAY, school administrator Don (played by Ralph E. Scott) begins each board meeting by sitting cross-legged and reading a meditation from Rumi, a 13th-century mystic poet.

It is one of the few moments of tranquility in the 90-minute play by Jonathan Spector. The Contemporary Theatre of Ohio production runs Nov. 5–22 at the Riffe Center (77 S. High Street in downtown Columbus).

Directed by Allie Moss, EUREKA DAY skewers “wokeness” at a private school, where the board must unanimously agree on every decision – including whether “transracial adoptee” and “Jewish” should be listed as races on the school’s cultural self-identification list. However, what begins as satire gradually evolves into a serious, yet funny examination of individual rights and what happens when those rights and beliefs come into conflict with others.

During the 2018–19 school year, this Berkeley, Calif., school must confront a mumps outbreak. When health officials recommend each student be vaccinated, the dividing line between “anti-vaxxers” and “vaxxers” becomes an unbreachable chasm among the board as well as the school community at large.

Moss gets the most out of this six-actor cast. With a collection of Cliff Huxtable sweaters, Scott gives a sense of a person trying to keep the peace among the members of his school board as well as the Eureka parents. Don claims, “There are no villains in this room.” That may be true, but there is plenty of friction to go around.

Making her debut for the Contemporary, Kat Hickey shines as the strong-willed, occasionally condescending Suzanne, who holds fast to her beliefs and occasionally puts her foot in her mouth. Her reveal of why she is an anti-vaxxer provides a real gut punch. As the board’s newcomer Carina, Shauna Marie provides a strong adversary for Hickey’s Suzanne. Julia Chen Myers (Meiko) and Nicholas Chokan (Eli) capture the awkwardness of two people caught in an affair who then have to serve with each other after the breakup. Shanelle Marie (Winter) makes the most of a limited role in EUREKA DAY, appearing in the last two minutes of the production.

Perhaps the funniest character in EUREKA DAY isn’t a physical character. A large computer screen reveals the hostility of parent attendees as Don tries to keep a Zoom meeting from spiraling out of control. It starts out with sniping among the listeners but escalates into a full-scale war of insults, accusations, and vulgar name-calling. The parent who keeps on using the “thumbs up” emoji regardless of what is being said gets the loudest laughs.

Spector’s work is neither slapstick comedy nor a referendum on the vaccine debate. It does give its audience a glimpse of the difficulties of incorporating everyone, especially when their beliefs are diametrically opposed, and the challenges of finding a way forward. The importance of listening to each person’s opinion, as Rumi suggests, is a message that is much needed in this post-election haze.