Review: EUREKA DAY at Pasadena Playhouse

That lovely melodious “ka-boom!” you may be hearing down the 210 freeway emanates from the collision of strong wills, good intentions and a progressive ideology of five very conflicted characters. Jonathan Spector’s EUREKA DAY – in its L.A-area premiere at The Pasadena Playhouse – would almost certainly benefit from multiple viewings and should be no less enjoyable with each visitation. Director Teddy Bergman’s production is that riveting. Timely, too. As even-handed as this investigation into a school vaccination policy proves to be, EURKEA DAY is a play that would addle Robert F. Kennedy Jr and all of his brain worms.

Our players are four members of an Executive Committee (a high falutin PTA, if you will) of a private elementary school in Berkeley, plus Don, Eureka Day’s head of school. There are long-time EC members, and one newcomer. Values? Oh, absolutely. Eureka Day flaunts its progressive bonafides the way a medieval warrior might brandish the gory severed head of a vanquished enemy. Consequently, the liberal-minded, wealthy and hugely sensitive members of the EC tread very carefully to avoid stepping on anybody’s toes – of students, parents or each other. Until they don’t. They’ve got secrets and baggage. Then , an outbreak of mumps forces the committee members to take a difficult look both at the school’s vaccination policy, and at their own values.

Premiering the play at the recently shuttered Aurora Theatre, Spector sets his work at the outset of the 2018-19 academic year, and the Bay Area-based playwright clearly had an eye for what lay ahead. Indeed, one of the most darkly funny lines is the curtain-closer: “It’s going to be clear skies and smooth sailing,” promises Don, the head of school, “as we launch together into the 2019/2020 school year.” Right.

The play opens a year earlier in September 2018 amidst a council of Alphas led by Suzanne (played by Mia Barron), who has put at least five children through the school and is both a committee and community fixture. She’s the one who donates every book in her house to the school’s library, brings artisanal scones and helps initiate the new committee members, with the utmost sensitivity so they will in no way feel "othered." Eli (Nate Corddry) is a well-meaning blowhard with money, a son attending the school and, apparently, an open marriage.

Rounding out the committee is Meiko (Camille Chen), a single mother who knits through the meetings and occasionally bristles at Suzanne and newcomer Carina (Cherise Boothe) whose son has arrived at Eureka Day after a less successful stint at a school in Maryland. Head of school Don (Rick Holmes) is the enforcer of rules, and the restorer of decorum whose eye must always be on keeping the lights on and the money coming in. He concludes meetings with inspirational quotes from the 13th century poet, Rumi.

Nuancing a cultural identity drop-down menu on the school’s website or staging an inclusive production of PETER PAN are challenging enough. Once a student contracts mumps, and the county health department shutters the school and instigates a period of quarantine, things get very serious. Parents start readying their pitchforks, and the committee members have to make difficult choices and form alliances. All of a sudden the health and safety of children becomes a socio-political football as their parents wrestle with their beliefs over whether vaccinations should be a choice.   

EUREKA DAY is a satire, and Bergman’s actors have to walk a line between portraying crunchy-groovy camp and flawed human beings to whom very bad things happen -  characters we want to both embrace and throttle. Credit the cast, who in addition to landing consistent laughs throughout the production’s 100 minutes, refrain from turning these men and women into caricatures. There will be moments when many people despise Suzanne or find Eli a hypocrite and a weakling…and then something will happen that may flip your perspective and your allegiance. “No one here is a villain,” Don reminds everyone in his “community of respect” at a critical juncture of the play. Perhaps not, but these already compromised men and women do not exactly shine in the face of a crisis.

Whether Suzanne is meant to be a villain or otherwise, she serves as the play’s loudest moral voice, and Barron is superb bringing her to life. The actor oozes good will and entitlement, but also nails the character’s fallibility in a key revelation scene that Spector telegraphs.  Anybody who has been part of a service organization – any service organization! – has probably met a Suzanne, and we’ve fallen under their leadership or kicked back. Barron’s performance inspires both instincts.

In EUREKA DAY, the kick-backer is Carina whom Boothe portrays as a formidable foil. Quiet and steady where others are flipping out, Carina is the play’s least stereotyped character. Boothe laces her acts of defiance with gentle humor or poignant silences as the occasion warrants.

Playing a guy who is a bit of jerk, Corddry skillfully guides Eli through a journey at the end of which he emerges perhaps a little bit smarter. That journey involves interaction with Meiko who has to shoulder some significant guilt. In Chen’s hands, Meiko spends most of the play quietly in a rage. Chen does good snark, and her eruptions, though frequent, are satisfying. Amidst the much stronger personalities, Holmes takes Don beyond the doofus-y zenmaster that he might be. The man may be in over his head, but he does ultimately have a backbone.

EUREKA DAY is ripped-from-the-headlines topical and also intelligent in its treatment of a thorny issue. Hearing a character reference the teaching of evolution, audience members might detect an echo from INHERIT THE WIND (which The Pasadena Playhouse staged in 2023). Except instead of attorneys going at each other in a sweaty southern courtroom, you’ve got multi-racial parents sitting at small tables in a library full of kids books flanked by signs reading Fiction and Social Justice. And the argument rages on.  

EUREKA DAY’S piece-de-resistance is a high-wire scene in which an escalating livestream chat during a community meeting threatens to hijack the action between the characters on stage. This masterful scene demonstrates not only Spector’s knowledge of his subject – including the workings of chatrooms - but also the skill of his craftsmanship. Important stuff is going down while these impassioned parents are turning into crusaders and trolls, but it all happens at such breakneck speed that you may very well miss developments.

 Given the steady stream of laughter, that’s a small price to pay. The scene is brilliant. Ditto Spector's play and Pasadena Playhouse's production.

EUREKA DAY plays through October 5 at 39 S El Molino Ave., in Pasadena.  

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