In 2016, when playwright Jonathan Spector wrote ‘Eureka Day,’ a dark comedy about a seemingly-progressive Berkeley, California school struggling with its vaccine policy, the debate over vaccinations had not yet become the political fault line it is today.
Nearly a decade later, the play’s revival on stages across the US arrives in a profoundly different America, as vaccine discourse becomes entwined with partisan identity.
“This play could only have been written pre-Covid,” said Spector in an interview with American Community Media. “Both the politics and the salience of the issue have changed so dramatically that to write it now would be an entirely different play,” said the playwright, who won a Tony award in 2025 for the best revival of a play.
San Jose debut
After performances at acclaimed venues across the country over the past two years, ‘Eureka Day’ makes its San Jose, California debut at City Lights Theater Company Sept. 24.
The revival of the play nationwide comes amid a sharp rise in the number of measles cases — 3,471 for 2026, according to Sept. 18 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Aug. 7, President Donald Trump signed an executive order, calling for the currently-combined measles-mumps-rubella vaccine to be separated into 3 individual vaccines. Such single dose vaccines are not currently available in the US.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has flip-flopped on his vaccine policies, initially equating the measles vaccine with an uptick in cases of autism. Kennedy has rolled back some of his concerns about the MMR vaccine, but also contends that the government should not force parents to get their children vaccinated, and that it should be a matter of choice.
A war of words
Critics have hailed Eureka Day for its nuanced portrayal of both pro and anti-vaxxers, who each believe they are doing the best thing for their children. That divide is portrayed in one of the most hilarious scenes of the play. As school board members conduct a meeting via Zoom following an outbreak of mumps, a furious debate emerges in the chat.
“We’re all threatened by your ANTI-SCIENCE DEATH CULT,” writes one parent. “Do what you want. Just keep your POISON off my kids,” responds another. “Vaccines are made from the cells of human fetuses,” writes another parent, while another throws support behind turmeric and ginger as antioxidants which support the whole body, eliminating the need for vaccines.
”Were you dropped on your head as a child?” writes one parent of another, as the Zoom meeting devolves into virtual anarchy.
One of the most complex characters in Eureka Day is Suzanne, a highly-educated, slightly stereotypical Berkeley parent who helped found Eureka Day school. Suzanne believes a vaccine given in infancy killed her first child. She is resolute against vaccinating her son Sebastian. Understanding the history of Suzanne’s character makes it difficult to dismiss her simply as an anti-vaxxer.
‘Cartoon villains’
“Early in my work in the play I did interviews with a variety of people. I find that has a very humanizing effect on how you begin to shape characters,” said Spector in the interview with ACoM. “Writing or watching a play with cartoon villains tends to be rather boring, so it’s not something I tend to do.”
In an interview with ACoM ahead of opening night, Lisa Mallette, artistic director at City Lights Theater Company said the revival of ‘Eureka Day’ is so relevant to the conversations occurring both in the personal realm and at the federal policy level.
”It’s just amazing to me how Jonathan Spector — a brilliant writer, captured how folks who feel strongly to vaccinate or not to vaccinate their children really doesn’t have anything to do with their political views.”
‘Covid changed everything’
“He realized that some of his friends were very much alike in all of the political ways, but they weren’t vaccinating their kids. And that was very surprising to him,” said Mallette. “So I think it’s a conversation that has been going on for decades and decades, but that we really hadn’t addressed.”
”And then of course, the COVID-19 pandemic happened, and it became 100 times more relevant. The conversations about whether or not to vaccinate your children just exploded.”
“Some people really pushed back and said, that’s not right for my kid.’ But kids are together at school. So the bigger question being asked in ‘Eureka Day’ is: what is the responsibility of the individual for the good of the whole,” said Mallette.
‘Human beings have different values’
“What we hope is that we’ll all learn to just talk and listen and, like the play says, give space for other people’s opinions. I think our audiences will appreciate that nuance as well: there is such a thing as being too open and too inclusive and looking for consensus. Because we as human beings are different, and we do hold different values.”
“Different things are important to us for different reasons, many of which no one knows. It’s very personal,” stated Mallette.
’Eureka Day’ runs at City Lights Theater Company from Sept. 24 through Oct. 18. It runs concurrently with a staging at Seattle Rep in Seattle, Washington through Nov. 18, with 2027 productions scheduled in Utah, Arkansas, and Kentucky.
SUNITA SOHRABJI
ACoM Health Editor Sunita Sohrabji is a veteran reporter, most recently covering the Indian American community for India-West newspaper. She has received 15 local and national awards for excellence in journalism.
