“Eureka Day” begins as a stock satire of the painstakingly earnest progressives at a small private elementary school in Berkeley, California, leading to one of the most hilarious scenes of the year, before it settles into a serious, thought-provoking exploration of an alarmingly relevant issue: vaccines. Indeed, despite the stellar cast and director Anne D. Shapiro’s solid direction,  the issue has become so newsworthy that Jonathan Spector’s play lands differently now – less comfortably – than when it was first produced in Berkeley in 2018 (the time and place where the play is still set.) What then might have seemed admirably balanced now seems dangerously so.

 The Eureka Day School and the five members of its executive committee who gather at the school’s library begin as such easy targets that the spot-on satire is even worked into Todd Rosenthal’s set, which features such signs as “Equity. Diversity. Inclusion” above bookcases labeled Fiction, Nonfiction, and Social Justice. The executive committee also has undertaken an expensive conversion of the school’s bathrooms to All Gender, using “only locally sourced materials.” The first agenda item in their meeting is whether the term “Transracial Adoptee” should be added to the identities (Latinx Heritage, etc.) listed on the application form for parents of prospective students.

‘Our core operating principle is that everybody should feel seen by this community,” argues Eli, who made a fortune at a tech start-up and now is a stay-at-home father. (He is portrayed by Thomas Middleditch in his Broadway debut, having played a similar character as star of the  series “Silicon Valley”)

“There’s no benefit in feeling seen if you’re simultaneously feeling othered, right?” points out Suzanne (Jessica Hecht), who is the longest-serving member of the Executive Committee, and, as we soon realize, the most insistent on sensitivity and consensus, albeit always couched in a reasonable tone. The school believes in consensus on all matters large and small; as she points out, it’s written into the bylaws.

That belief is shattered starting a few days later, when Don (Bill Irwin), the principal of the school, calls together an emergency meeting of the committee to read a letter he received from a city public health officer, announcing that a student in the school has come down with the Mumps. As a result, all other children who have no documentation that they are immune – either because of previous infection, or because they’ve been vaccinated – must stay home. And he offers a schedule for the vaccine.

It turns out that, in this expensive private school, roughly half the parents have not vaccinated their children, including a couple of members of the executive committee. 

They decide to hold what they call a “Community Activated Conversation.” Here is a scene in which they explain what that is to Carina (Amber Gray), a new parent in the school and a new member of the committee, a Black lesbian who took her child out of public school because he wasn’t getting enough attention. Carina acts for a time as a way for the other characters to explain the way things are (to the audience.)

The ”C.A.C.” turns out to be a live streamed meeting, and a master class in comedy.

The on-stage actors talk with each other, mostly oblivious to the texts of the parents on the computer (which we read as they are projected rapid-fire on a screen behind the actors.)  

The parents in turn largely ignore the in-person goings-on, starting out in their own bubble, texting idly with one another, but they then turn increasingly hostile, towards the members of the committee, but mostly towards each other, divided by their attitudes toward vaccination: 

 Arnold Filmore Just answer honestly: would you rather have measles or autism? 
Orson Mankel Just answer honestly: were you dropped on your head as a child? 

I can’t do this scene justice; it’s so inventive, so expertly paced – and, so (if you’ve ever chatted online) familiar.

It’s a credit to the playwright and the production that “Eureka Day” can be so humorous, and yet smoothly shift gears to provide insight into each of the characters, and wind up a realistically plotted and touching story. The cast works beautifully as an ensemble, but if any of the performers stand out, it’s Jessica Hecht. Her character Suzanne is something of a bully and yet we also sympathize with her. She is a strident anti-vaxxer, but tells Carina a personal story that allows us to understand why she marshals reasonable-sounding arguments and uses sly tactics to try to force a consensus that doesn’t actually exist.   

And this is what made me uncomfortable. Let’s put aside whether the playwright’s easy mockery of progressives’ linguistic excesses is dated, especially at a time when the ascendant far right has stigmatized “woke” to help in their active effort to peel back hard-won rights. I mean, I laughed, so I guess I’m dated too. But I saw “Eureka Day” with a friend who, in a surprising conversation we had afterward,  declared himself an anti-vaxxer.  He started telling me anecdotes, but didn’t back any of it up with articles I requested he find on his smart phone, while refusing even to look at articles I showed him on mine (Six Childhood Scourges We’ve Forgotten About, Thanks to Vaccines;/ Time To Remember: Vaccines Don’t Cause Autism)  

He enjoyed the play, as did I. He found it “balanced.” Although (spoiler alert), the others eventually side against Suzanne’s position, my friend didn’t see “Eureka Day” as challenging his view. He identified with Suzanne.

In a recent interview, the playwright said he began writing “Eureka Day” in the time “leading up to the 2016 election when I was trying to wrap my head around how deeply it felt that half the country lived in a different reality than I did, so the play is about vaccine skepticism, but more broadly a way to explore the question of how you can make and live in a society with people if you can’t agree with what’s true.”

 Given what’s been in the news lately (“75 Nobel laureates urge US Senate to reject Robert F Kennedy Jr’s nomination”;/ “Kennedy’s Lawyer Has Asked the F.D.A. to Revoke Approval of the Polio Vaccine/on the very day “Eureka Day” is opening, “Trump cited debunked data linking vaccines and autism”) does a play that’s on Broadway have a responsibility to make clear what’s true?

Eureka Day
MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theater through January 19. Extended to February 16.
Running time: 95 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $48 – $321
Written by Jonathan Spector
Directed by Anna D. Shapiro
Scenic design by Todd Rosenthal,  costume design by Clint Ramos, lighting design by Jen Schriever, sound design by Rob Milburn & Michael Bodeen, projection design by David Bengali, vocal coaching by Gigi Buffington
Cast: Amber Gray, Jessica Hecht, Bill Irwin, Thomas Middleditch, Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz, Ebony Flowers