Review: Eureka Day at 4th Wall Theatre Co.

How prescient is Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day, now rollicking and roiling at 4th Wall Theatre Company. And how present!

As if the play had been torn from the headlines – the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in a confusing and contentious meeting as of two days ago, Thursday, September 18, voted against vaccinating children under the age of four with a combination shot that protects against measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox – it’s amazing that Spector wrote this work pre-Covid in 2018. It’s so now.

At the Eureka Day School in Berkeley, California, perhaps the “wokest” place on the planet, five parents and administrators begin the school year with a hazy quote from the 13th-century Sufi mystic Jamal Rumi. Principal Don (Philip Lehl) leads the executive committee with as gentle a touch as he can manage. Everybody’s voice is respected, each opinion taken seriously. When he must intercede, which he is loathe to do, he does it with quiet restraint. He doesn’t want to make waves. He doesn’t even want to be in the water. One of his favorite refrains is, “I don’t wish to advocate, but…” He hates conflict and would rather change the subject as soon as possible. You know everything you need to know about him when you notice his beaded bracelet and numerous finger rings.

Along with Don, there’s Suzanne (Kim Tobin-Lehl), the president of the committee, whose sharp tongue withers the opposition; Eli (Nick Farco), a tech giant with mega bucks who loves to man-splain, and is having an affair with Meiko (Laine Chan), who knits throughout and whose daughter will bring contagion to the school; and Carina (Jasmine Renee Thomas), a new parent at the school who holds her own against the soft, not so subtle, prejudice from Suzanne who thinks Carina must be a charity case. Carina is the voice of the sane.

The ensemble quintet shines brilliantly in their own little arias, whether obtuse or deliberate, petty or catty. Tobin-Lehl delivers a poignant monologue on the death of her baby who may or may not have been accidentally killed by a vaccine; Thomas’ rich contralto grounds our focus, keeping her center stage throughout; Lehl dithers exceptionally as he desperately tries to maintain the peace; Farco, always on edge, fidgets precisely; while Chan, whose character is a bit underwritten, gets a deserved outburst, punctuated by a comic exit trailing her wayward ball of yarn. Exceptional work by all.

The elite private elementary school is as liberal and progressive as you can imagine in a land kindly derided as “Berserkley.” There are sweet, non-threatening slogans plastered on the classroom walls for the elucidation of the kiddies: Think Positive, Be Positive. Today a Reader, Tomorrow a Leader. Mistakes Happen, Keep Trying. Bromides abound. “No one is a villain” will be said later as the play heats up and sides are taken. The five will butt heads and quickly lose the up-tight demeanor so favored at the school and in the community. Eureka Day School is so neutral-centric that its students cheer the opposing soccer team when it scores against it.

Civilization will not break down as neatly as in Yasmina Reza’s classic God of Savage, but Spector’s theme is very near to the French playwright’s. He pricks the pretensions of these liberals with a thousand little stiletto cuts. The genteel affability, so phony on the surface, curdles; but the play, furiously funny, is not a screed. These characters are quite human. And when they preen their goodness and fairness and D.E.I. manners, we see ourselves.

What sets the plot spinning and the five on edge is an outbreak of mumps, started by Meiko’s daughter, who then spreads it to Eli’s son during their playdate, while Eli and Meiko play house together. To vax or not to vax gets heated debate as the concerns between school policy, their own safety worries, and the health of the community begin to pall. It’s lively, in one act, and moves swiftly under Jennifer Dean’s expert direction.

The best scene in the play, Scene 3, is also the most hilarious. How long should the school be shut down when the health department demands vaccinations for students to attend class. The five decide to hold a live stream where other parents can participate and share their views. A screen drops down where we read the comments which grow increasingly crass and obnoxious as is usual on any open thread. It doesn’t matter what the five are trying to say to the parents, the outside group has an intolerant life of its own, and the audience laughter drowns out the actors’ dialogue anyway. It’s perfect social media satire. Inappropriate, out of hell, and truly silly. Wait for Leslie Kaufman’s gold “thumbs up” emoji that gets gales of laughter each time she posts.

Spector’s play, which won a Tony Award for Best Revival last season, has become one of the most produced plays in the U.S. according to American Theater Magazine which documents such things. It’s easy to see why. Wicked and thought-provoking, immensely clever, it skewers the faux first-worlders as they navigate through a school pandemic without really knowing how to fix it…or themselves.

Note: Although Mark A. Lewis’ set design is a masterclass in elementary school detail, my guest at the theater pointed out that the panorama of the Bay Bridge and surroundings seen through the school’s window is wrong. If we’re in Berkeley, the view out the window should be a long shot of downtown San Francisco. The parents at Eureka Day may be woke, but they should know their directions.

Eureka Day continues through October 11 at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; and 2:30 p.m. Sundays at 4th Wall Theatre Company, Silver Street Studios,1824 Spring Street. For more information, call 832-767-4991 or visit 4thwalltheatreco.com. $25-$70.