Review: I laughed throughout this new Charlotte play about ... vaccines?
A medical outbreak. Folks not seeing eye to eye. Emotions are running rampant.
We’ve seen this before, right?
But we haven’t necessarily seen it like this. “Eureka Day,” the opening production of Three Bone Theatre’s 14th season, simmers with the anxieties of the COVID pandemic before becoming not a rehash of past feelings but a moving portrait of the realities of community.
It’s also one that has you laughing at the seams.
Directed by Charlotte theater stalwart Tonya Bludsworth, the production follows the five member executive committee of the Eureka Day School in Berkley, Calif., at the start of the 2018-19 school year. Led by the school’s principal Don (Rob Addison), he is flanked by three mainstays of the committee – Suzanne (Donna Scott), Meiko (Amy Wada) and Eli (Brandon Dawson) – and one newcomer, Carina (Vanessa Robinson).
Their first task? Make sure everyone is happy with the drop-down menu for the ethnicity field on the school’s application. It’s a well-meaning group made up of the school leader and four parents of children, but they love to talk around the issue. Is this the correct phrasing? Did we include everyone? Some folks could be offended if we do this and that…
What feels like a scene out of Monty Python held by the People’s Front of Judea (or was it the Judean People’s Front…?), the five-person group finally comes to the conclusion that… they’ll just keep it as it is.
This opening scene sets the tone as “Eureka Day” is about a group of people with the best intentions to do what is right until their own safety and comfort begins to be threatened.
Soon after news of a case of the mumps with a student of the school reaches Don’s desk, he calls an emergency meeting. Meiko is late, but the others debate: Is the language of the health department’s declaration the position we want to take? Should we craft our own letter simultaneously with theirs?
Safety first is best, but the game plan changes when Meiko finally arrives at the meeting and describes her daughter’s illness, which aligns with the symptoms of the mumps.
In the best scene of the entire production, the committee takes to a “community activated conversation” (“It’s different from a town hall!”). A Zoom call with parents devolves from a discussion about what the next steps are, to a discussion amongst the committee about how they should proceed, to a complete breakdown of the meeting’s chat feature which is displayed on the wall behind the performers for the audience to see.
The chatter of the characters at the moment becomes secondary to the chat, which feels like an accumulation of any Facebook comment thread you’ve ever seen.
How do we find complete consensus while also trying to have every voice included? It’s a complicated path that we try to navigate in today’s world, and one that we’re not always successful at doing. But is that because it’s just very difficult to do or is it impossible?
No one could say the Eureka Day committee wasn’t being inclusive or thoughtful in their reasoning, but those qualities fall to the side when a child’s health is threatened or someone’s standing with the school is put to a test.
In an overall strong group, Amy Wada and Donna Scott stood out with two of the more complicated characters in the story.
Wada, who previously shined in “The Chinese Lady” for Three Bone, as Meiko is a character who doesn’t leap to speak as much as the rest of the group but makes an impact when she does. As tensions rise between the group, she becomes a voice that is more assured and level on what is happening at the moment rather than any of the others.
On the same note, Scott as Donna can be the toughest character to find empathy for among the group, but her performance creates these moving sequences that challenge how you feel the school should proceed.
On the outside, “Eureka Day” can seem like one of those retreads that has followed the pandemic and failed to capture the complexities of the decisions and conversations happening around it. But it doesn’t fall into those trappings.
It’s fresh and funny, anchored by strong performances from the cast that elevates this into a winning opening show for Three Bone’s latest season.
If you go
“Eureka Day”
Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Nov. 23
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.
Three Bone Theatre, The Arts Factory, 1545 W. Trade St., Charlotte
Tickets range from $20-35 and can be purchased here.
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This story was originally published November 12, 2025 at 11:58 AM.
