Eureka Day: Entertaining and Provocative
At Shaker Bridge Theatre in White River Junction, VT
You’d be forgiven if during the first scene of Eureka Day you feared you had been consigned to some unnumbered circle of hell called Committee Meetings. I wasn’t sure I could bear to be in the room much longer with these characters, the (so convincingly acted) members of the Eureka Day School’s executive committee, debating whether adding a category to a drop down menu on its admissions page was “offensive.” You can get an idea of the dialogue in which the characters mouth words like “erased,” “seen,” “unique perspective,” “deeper learning,” and “a lot to unpack.” But I will give them this—having myself been a participant/hostage in too many faculty meetings, this cast nailed it, not just in words, but with every gesture of faux supplication. And then along comes the dilemma that forms the center of this satirical look at the limits of consensus—what to do when a student tests positive for mumps.
Fear not. The five decide to invite the entire community for what else—a “Community Activated Conversation”—to discuss. And a good number of the citizenry appear on stage in limited fashion through the magic of Zoom, as they race to add their two cents in the comments that scroll on a screen behind the actors. Emmy Award-winning actor Gordon Clapp is Don, aptly described later in the play as a great captain unless you come upon an iceberg; he leans into his computer screen to direct the online interaction. It is clear Don is not a native in the land of Zoom, and it eventually unravels him. This may be one of the funniest scenes I have seen on stage since . . . well, I can’t remember.
Act II still provides some laughs but ushers in a much more somber tone, because the dilemmas about vaccinations and closing the school become real. And complicated, no matter which side you think you might be on. Danielle Cohen is excellent as Suzanne, the iron fist/velvet-gloved old timer who laces every attempt to control her colleagues with a viper’s smile. Just as you’ve grown to sort of detest her, she reveals a back story that causes you to reconsider.
Jammie Patton (she directed last year’s production of Maytag Virgin at SBT) as Carina is up to the task of fending off Suzanne’s abuse, even with just her facial expressions (which I suspect are being mirrored by much of the audience.) Jon Protas is the stereotypical embodiment of what singer Christine Lavin used to call “a Sensitive, New-Age Guy,” and occasional lover of Meiko, portrayed by Stephanie Jeane. She knits (all meetings have one) and keeps her head down, until she doesn’t.
Eureka Day, a Tony Award-winner celebrated on Broadway and elsewhere, is a satirical play that is perfect at both entertaining and challenging an audience. Needless to say, it is timely. When it appeared at the Huntingdon in Boston this past summer, playwright Jonathan Spector said:
Eureka Day explores, among other things, the dangers of vaccine misinformation, and the challenge of forming any kind of civil society when people cannot agree on baseline truth. When I sat down to write this play seven years ago, I could never have fathomed these would be issues that hit so close to home for so many of us. Unfortunately, here we are.”
Eureka Day was scheduled to appear at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., when it was abruptly cancelled. The Manhattan Theatre Club, the producers of Eureka Day, stated officially that the cancellation of the production’s two-week engagement was due to financial circumstances. For context, the cancellation was one of many following Donald Trump’s appointment as the Kennedy Center’s chairman in early February 2025.
Which adds to the reasons to support Shaker Bridge Theatre’s staging of this play. If you want a fresh look at what the erosion of faith in science means in the day-to-day, and are willing (or eager) to accept a witty skewering of the uber-politically correct, jump into this engaging and very funny fray.
On stage through October 19, 2025. For more information and tickets, click here. Photos courtesy of Shaker Bridge Theatre. Photo credit: Caitlin Gomes Photography. Top, Jammie Patton, Gordon Clapp, Stephanie Jeane. Center, Danielle Cohen and Stephanie Jeane.
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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, Next Avenue, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.