"Eureka Day" at Aurora Theatre Company

Aurora photo by David Allen

This was a show I wanted to see based on the reactions of other people who'd been seeing it, so we managed to catch one of the last performances in the extended run. Unfortunately, it's now long over (because it's taken me forever to write about it). But the show was a very clever world premiere of a play by Jonathan Spector.

The Play

Set in a very progressive Berkeley private elementary school, the play starts as a pitch-perfect parody of a very precious, politically- and socially-correct school where everybody and their opinions and practices are accepted and valued and everyone in the room seems determined to be more tolerant and accepting than everyone else.

The plot revolves around several meetings of the governing board of the school, made up of parents, of course, and the head of the school. They do everything by consensus, of course, because voting might devalue some people's participation. And everything's going pretty smoothly until a case of mumps shows up in the school, precipitating a conflict over vaccination.

There are a couple of really terrific aspects of this play. One is the use of social media. During the mumps outbreak, with the school closed, the board gathers to host a "town hall" meeting of the school community online, and the "chat room" from the community is projected on the wall so we can all see what's going on. Things go downhill rapidly and the dialog blends quite brilliantly with the typed interactions. It's very clever and very funny.

The other really clever choice is the issue of vaccination, because it's a controversial issue that cuts across ideological lines, so even in ever-so-liberal Berkeley, the community can be divided on the matter.

All in all, I thought the play was very well written and polished, and just when I feared it was just going to be a parody of Berkeley and Liberal Virtue, it turned into a pretty strong examination of the fault lines that can cut through even a seemingly harmonious, homogeneous community. The script manages to be both funny and fair, which is a tough path, but it works.

The Performance

 The cast was strong and balanced, generally resisting the temptation to overplay their characters. These all feel like people I've known in the community. [And that is not meant as a dig at anyone I served with on the parents' board at my daughter's school long ago.] And just when you think you've pegged a character, the script adds some new dimension that makes you rethink things.

The set really gets the feel of an elementary school classroom, and the lighting and projections work really well. All in all, it was a fine production.

Bottom Line

I wish I had been able to see the show early enough in the run to recommend that others see it. In particular, some of my peers who have also served on private-school parent boards would have enjoyed it.

This was definitely a case where Aurora's production quality was matched by the script, and in this case it was the first script they had commissioned through their "Originate+Generate" program. That bodes well for future efforts, I hope. Aurora has a kind of hit-and-miss reputation, so here's hoping this represents an upward tick.

Good play, good production. Glad I saw it before it closed.