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Eureka Day
The Eureka Day School in Berkeley, California, is a bastion of progressive ideals: representation, acceptance, social justice. In weekly meetings Eureka Day’s five board members develop and update policy to preserve this culture of inclusivity, reaching decisions only by consensus. But when a mumps outbreak threatens the Eureka community, facts become subjective and every solution divisive, leaving the school’s leadership to confront the central question of our time: How do you build consensus when no one can agree on truth?
160 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
May 31, 2024
I live just 10 minutes from Berkeley, the setting of this play, so know this environment all too well. This is a very prescient play, dealing as it does with the anti-vaxxer movement; here, however, being written and set in 2017, centered on a mumps epidemic and not COVID, which obvs. didn't exist back then. Although it doesn't READ as particularly funny, I could see how it would PLAY much funnier, especially the third scene of the first act, in which a community online forum descends into savagery.
After acclaimed productions off-off Broadway and in London, the play is coming to Broadway in the fall at Manhattan Theatre Club - will be curious to see how it does in that incarnation.
Fun fact: towards the end of the play, mention is made of one Marty Berman, who was a longtime acting teacher in the area (I had him at Cal back in the early 70's!), in what must surely be a nice shout-out from the playwright.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/29/th...
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/202...
https://nystagereview.com/2019/09/09/...
https://nystagereview.com/2019/08/29/...
After acclaimed productions off-off Broadway and in London, the play is coming to Broadway in the fall at Manhattan Theatre Club - will be curious to see how it does in that incarnation.
Fun fact: towards the end of the play, mention is made of one Marty Berman, who was a longtime acting teacher in the area (I had him at Cal back in the early 70's!), in what must surely be a nice shout-out from the playwright.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/29/th...
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/202...
https://nystagereview.com/2019/09/09/...
https://nystagereview.com/2019/08/29/...
November 21, 2025
Currently calling cues
August 27, 2025
A brilliantly written character study. There is so much going on but very easy to follow.
October 15, 2022
(nb. I read this the day after seeing the 2022 Old Vic production starring Helen Hunt and Mark McKinney.)
If the job of theatre is to reflect the current moment, then Eureka Day is the hardest-working play I've seen in a long time. Ostensibly, Eureka Day is about an outbreak of mumps at an elementary school in Berkeley, California, but it's actually about smug West Coast liberalism and the way luxury beliefs falter when confronted with real life issues. Spector takes no prisoners here and skewers various types of left-wing egotist, from the wildly rich tech whiz, to the well-meaning benevolent hippie. All are exposed as flawed people who, despite their comfortable positions in life, are still vulnerable to the vagaries of life; namely, illness, pain, and death.
Even from my own broadly left-wing perspective, I felt a dark kind of glee hearing the speech patterns of the achingly woke be lampooned here. Everyone takes an age to get a sentence out because they're trying so hard not to offend anyone and to make themselves seem the most intelligent. There's a lot of hot air but very little gets said. It's horribly familiar and makes the news of the mumps outbreak almost a relief; finally, they have an actual problem to deal with!
The best scene in this play, and as good as any scene in any play, is the third scene when the board of governors hold a Zoom meeting with the parents to discuss quarantine and vaccination. It blows my mind to think that this play was written in 2017. An eerie prescience envelopes the whole play but this scene in particular stands out as the online chat goes from confusion over mute buttons and emojis to an all-out slanging match. It's perfectly pitched and genuinely hilarious.
As a regular UK theatre-goer, it's rare and deeply satisfying to hear an audience vocalise their reactions; to 'oooh' and 'ahhh' in response to lines of dialogue. I've noticed this happens a lot more in American audiences, and perhaps this happened more here because it's an American cast in an American play by an American playwright, but I actually think it's because the scandalous outspokenness during the Zoom meeting scene emboldened the audience to show their own political opinions and biases. They laughed appreciatively at sharp sarcasm towards anti-vaxxers and peddlers of pseudo-science, they 'oohed' and gasped at ableism and name-calling. Spector is obviously an extremely perceptive writer to be able to craft a play which blends vastly differing and controversial opinions while keeping his audience's feelings and responses in mind AND remains realistic. Again, I remind myself this was all written before the pandemic. Masterful.
Unusually, this is a play which I think gets a lot across on the page as well as in performance and if you can't catch a production of it (which you definitely should), it's also worth reading.
How did he know what was coming?!
If the job of theatre is to reflect the current moment, then Eureka Day is the hardest-working play I've seen in a long time. Ostensibly, Eureka Day is about an outbreak of mumps at an elementary school in Berkeley, California, but it's actually about smug West Coast liberalism and the way luxury beliefs falter when confronted with real life issues. Spector takes no prisoners here and skewers various types of left-wing egotist, from the wildly rich tech whiz, to the well-meaning benevolent hippie. All are exposed as flawed people who, despite their comfortable positions in life, are still vulnerable to the vagaries of life; namely, illness, pain, and death.
Even from my own broadly left-wing perspective, I felt a dark kind of glee hearing the speech patterns of the achingly woke be lampooned here. Everyone takes an age to get a sentence out because they're trying so hard not to offend anyone and to make themselves seem the most intelligent. There's a lot of hot air but very little gets said. It's horribly familiar and makes the news of the mumps outbreak almost a relief; finally, they have an actual problem to deal with!
The best scene in this play, and as good as any scene in any play, is the third scene when the board of governors hold a Zoom meeting with the parents to discuss quarantine and vaccination. It blows my mind to think that this play was written in 2017. An eerie prescience envelopes the whole play but this scene in particular stands out as the online chat goes from confusion over mute buttons and emojis to an all-out slanging match. It's perfectly pitched and genuinely hilarious.
As a regular UK theatre-goer, it's rare and deeply satisfying to hear an audience vocalise their reactions; to 'oooh' and 'ahhh' in response to lines of dialogue. I've noticed this happens a lot more in American audiences, and perhaps this happened more here because it's an American cast in an American play by an American playwright, but I actually think it's because the scandalous outspokenness during the Zoom meeting scene emboldened the audience to show their own political opinions and biases. They laughed appreciatively at sharp sarcasm towards anti-vaxxers and peddlers of pseudo-science, they 'oohed' and gasped at ableism and name-calling. Spector is obviously an extremely perceptive writer to be able to craft a play which blends vastly differing and controversial opinions while keeping his audience's feelings and responses in mind AND remains realistic. Again, I remind myself this was all written before the pandemic. Masterful.
Unusually, this is a play which I think gets a lot across on the page as well as in performance and if you can't catch a production of it (which you definitely should), it's also worth reading.
How did he know what was coming?!
January 22, 2025
First performed in 2018, this play seems especially timely in the post-Covid era. Set in a private school in Berkeley, 'Eureka' concerns a meeting of the board at a private school, with most of the characters being oh so politically correct in every possible way. The gloves come off when there's a mumps outbreak, revealing strong differences of opinion regarding the MMR vaccine, and how to address the need for school closure. A very effective scene includes Zoom comments from parents during a 'Community' meeting - manners wilt and tempers flare, shocking the board members. At times the stereotypes (however based in reality they might be) get a bit tired, but an interesting play - all the more now, with vaccines and healthcare in general being under scrutiny.
October 10, 2025
Interesting choice to critique the inherent racism of Suzanne and the moral posturing of the other members while so blatantly peddling and relying on antisemitic tropes to end the play. Eli being obscenely wealthy through no fault of his own while also using it to control the school is at best tone deaf and at worst malicious—beyond the fact there was nothing Jewish about his character other than that. Yet another example of the malicious otherness of Jews Don’t Count.
January 24, 2025
A play for our times. Where do anti-vaxxers fall along the spectrum of creationists or flat-earthers when it comes to a private school? How accepting and inclusive can a community be when it is always divided? Full of assumptions and questions, the play pokes and prods at everyone in it. I hope to see it in New York.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 30, 2025
An uproariously funny, sometimes angering, moving and deeply real piece of theatre. Spector manages to make his audience empathize with each and every character, at the same time he is skewering them. An incredibly real and prescient topic is handled quite brilliantly in this piece. I can't wit until one of my local theatre companies presents this!
April 28, 2024
A bitingly funny play that is both satire and docudrama about the foibles of society today as we seek to collectively do what is right all the while we fail to realize that not everyone agrees with us.
June 8, 2025
Couldn’t put the play down! As an educator who has worked in private school settings, the portrayals were spot on. The comedic approach was specific, refreshing, and consistently hilarious. The way the play is formatted is very original and adds to the humor. I’d read again!
August 26, 2025
So I actually read “this much I know” by the same playwright and wanted to log something but I really liked this. Really interesting comparisons between Soviet Russia and white nationalism in the US and conversations about blame and responsibility
September 14, 2025
Solid play, perhaps written around the live chat/forum at the end of Act I and a lengthy and heart-breaking monologue in Act II. It’s real talky, but maybe seeing it live onstage helps with the experience.
December 2, 2025
Extremely solid portrayal of hypocrisy and over-labeling. The character’s steadfast effort to not upset anyone while handling such divisive issues is so funny, because it’s extremely real. I prefer that over being extremely divisive. Actually, I’m unsure. I think both are just as bad.
November 10, 2024
Absolutely insane. Truly a play for our times. Dying to see it, as it’s something that cannot fully be experienced on the page.
December 24, 2024
Cute, like a more silly calmer version of Sunken
January 17, 2025
This guy is a genius, hilarious, no notes. Berkeley flashbacks and I'm not even gone yet
April 29, 2025
Scathing satire about a very woke private pre-school and the various personalities on the board who are trying their best to be politically correct. When a measles epidemic hits the school tensions rise and vaccination becomes a hot topic. Often hilarious, the Zoom meeting sequence has to be one of the funniest scenes ever written for a contemporary play.
June 11, 2025
Funny and very thought provoking. Timely. Would love to see this staged.
July 17, 2025
This one hit very close to home....
August 23, 2025
4.25/5.
October 6, 2025
currently watching a designer run and it makes this show so much funnier
October 17, 2025
Cannot wait to get started in rehearsals!
November 20, 2025
The scene on Zoom goes crazy, and the fact that this was written before Covid? Timing was really on his side for this show.
December 29, 2025
Funniest play I have ever read. Top 3 for me. So fucking real. Zoom scene is best scene I have ever read. Jessica Hecht was incredible in this at MTC!
January 22, 2025
very funny, woke mob at it’s finest…
October 6, 2025
Reading history:
Normally I keep this in my private notes section, but I'm moving it. Yay!
Reading history was not added on Goodreads, but was instead kept on a post-it note with the book.
Started August 20th, 2025.
Finished September 1st, 2025.
August 20th, 2025: read scene 1 (pp. 1-34) in physical form.
August 26th, 2025: read scene 2 (pp. 35-54) in physical form.
August 31st, 2025: read scene 3 (pp. 55-85) in physical form.
September 1st, 2025: read scenes 4-7 (all of act 2, pp. 86-154) in physical form.
Normally I keep this in my private notes section, but I'm moving it. Yay!
Reading history was not added on Goodreads, but was instead kept on a post-it note with the book.
Started August 20th, 2025.
Finished September 1st, 2025.
August 20th, 2025: read scene 1 (pp. 1-34) in physical form.
August 26th, 2025: read scene 2 (pp. 35-54) in physical form.
August 31st, 2025: read scene 3 (pp. 55-85) in physical form.
September 1st, 2025: read scenes 4-7 (all of act 2, pp. 86-154) in physical form.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews