EUREKA DAY – REVIEW OF 2026 COAL MINE THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Eureka Day is  brilliant play that gets a stunning production by Coal Mine Theatre. It is a searing satire of “liberal, progressive idealists” who are trying desperately to be fair, all-inclusive and reaching decisions by consensus.

 We are in Berkeley California at the private Eureka Day elementary school. In is October 2017 and the executive committee is meeting in the school library. There are two men and three women. Don (Kevin Bundy) is the head of the school and he is meeting with the executive committee members. Eli (Jake Epstein) is eager, talkative, and enthusiastic in his views on consensus and inclusiveness. Suzanne (Sarah McVie) is white, equally enthusiastic as she tries to prove that she is a decent person who believes that consensus is the way to make decisions. Meiko (Stephanie Sy) is Oriental and holds the same principles on principle. Carina (Sophia Walker) is black and like the others, except for Don, has a child in the school.

 A pupil gets the mumps and the question is what should the school do about it? The five discuss various options. Close the school; insist that all children get vaccinated. Oops. Vaccination may be terrible for your child or it may cause death. Trying to reach a consensus is impossible, especially under Don’s wishy-washy behavior. He is described as a good captain until he sees the iceberg.

The committee calls for a virtual meeting with parents or guardians of the pupils. It turns into a hilarious affair with Don speaking to the parents who are posting comments on a screen behind the committee. The audience pays attention to Don’s comments, they engage in other conversations, they write non-sequiturs or conspiracy theories or just plain idiocies. The public meeting is a disaster. 

Jake Epstein, Sarah McVie and Stephanie Sy 
in Eureka Day.  Photo by Elana Emer 

There is a petition that all pupils should be vaccinated and dramatic scenes by committee members of vaccinated child having serious side effects and being put in an induced coma with uncertain results. In another horrific case, a child dies because the parents refused to vaccinate the child.

Eureka Day was written before Covid-19 and the subsequent inanities of Robert F. Kennedy Jr, or the psychotic behavior of Trump and Co. but it  is a powerful and funny play because it exposes the impossibility or perhaps ridiculousness of attempting to make decisions by consensus. They want to respect all points of view. Nobody is wrong and we try for consensus. There are people who believe the earth is flat. How do we deal with them? There are people who believe in intelligent design in the creation of the universe by a Judeo-Christian deity whereas others take a different view. Try reaching a consensus on that as well as many other issues.

The discussion continues among these nice liberals but author Jonathan Spector has a couple of plot twists that I will not disclose.

The set by Steve Lucas  and Beckie Morris shows a library with children’s books and chairs. Nic Vincent’s lighting design is good and useful in indicating time changes.

The play is tough on actors and the director. They interrupt each  other, try to appear reasonable and get through the havoc of the virtual meeting with the irreverent parents. Kevin Bundy as Don can barely keep his sanity as he tries to steer a course that does not exist.  McVie as Susanne tris to hide her racism until it leaps out. Meiko is having an affair with Eli under the pretense of his “open” marriage. His wife knows about the affair and she sends hourly text messages to Meiko referring to her unkindly and colloquially as a member of the oldest profession.  

Carina proves a more skillful worker under the consensus regime than the rest. The praise I give to the cast is enormous and unstinting; the same praise is earned by director Mitchell Cushman. A stunning job that gives us a superb production of a marvelous play that no one should miss.
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Eureka Day by Jonathan Spector will  run until March 1,  2026, at the Coal Mine Theatre, 2076 Danforth Ave. Toronto, (northwest corner of Woodbine and Danforth). www.coalminetheatre.com/

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto