Marin Theatre in Mill Valley kicked off 2025 with Waste, the organizations fresh take on a century-old play that will have you on the edge of your seat.
Now they’re diving head-long into “Eureka Day.” Seven years after its debut at Berkeley’s Aurora Theatre Co., Bay Area playwright Jonathan Spector’s sly, incisive comedy “Eureka Day” is coming to Mill Valley’s Marin Theatre.
A spoof of ultra-careful parents discussing vaccination policy at an exclusive private school — and a spoof of much more than that — the play has been well received everywhere it’s been produced, including London and New York, where it won this year’s Tony Award for best revival of a play.
Opening Aug. 28, “Eureka Day” will feature original director Josh Costello (Aurora’s artistic director) at the helm. The production is a partnership between Marin Theatre and Aurora Theatre Co., with “most members of the artistic team from the premiere returning,” Costello said via email. Costello and Marin Theatre Executive Artistic Director Lance Gardner tried to bring back “as many members from the original Aurora production as were available, as a kind of revisitation and celebration of the 2018 production,” Gardner said.
Social media gets a special kind of skewering in the production, with projections and superscripts popping up as unseen participants contribute via text messages to the school’s policy discussions.
“The livestream is an essential part of the play,” Costello said. “When Jonathan was writing the play, we were able to hold a special workshop at Aurora specifically to figure out how to make that work. Teddy Hulsker, the video designer, did a spectacular job.”
How might Marin audiences react? “‘Eureka Day’ continues to be very topical. Josh’s original production was a laugh-out-loud hit when it played at Aurora Theatre in 2018. I hope that Marin audiences are able to laugh at aspects of themselves that they see in this play while acknowledging all of the truths and tender moments of grief and empathy that it contains, which have only become more relevant in the seven years since its debut,” Gardner said.
Costello is excited to see the production again in the Bay Area. “It’s such a treat to be able to bring ‘Eureka Day’ back home to the Bay Area after all its success in New York and around the world,” Costello said. “Audiences everywhere have loved the play, but because the play is set in Berkeley, people here really recognize these characters and relate to these situations. Also, the play’s focus on vaccine hesitancy has only become more relevant in the years since the premiere. I expect audiences are going to laugh a lot and also come away with a lot to talk about.”
Poking plenty of fun at contemporary social pretensions, “Eureka Day” should be a tremendous kickoff for the fall theater season.
“Marin Theatre will absolutely continue to stage truthful, powerful, funny plays that ask people to consider the complexity of problems with many answers,” Gardner said.
Contact Barry Willis at barry.m.willis@gmail.com.
If you go
What: “Eureka Day”
Where: Marin Theatre, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley
When: Aug. 28 through Sept. 21
Admission: $15 to $84 plus $6 handling fee per total order
Information: 415-388-5208; MarinTheatre.org
