EUREKA DAY
3W, 2 M 95 minutes
​
At Eureka Day School in Berkeley, all decisions are made by consensus, diversity of opinion is valued, and vaccinations are a personal matter. When a mumps outbreak hit the school, it turns out that not everyone in the community has the same definition of social justice. Now the board of directors must confront the central question of our time: how do find consensus when you can’t agree on the facts?
​
Selected history:
[2023-24] Burg Theatre (Vienna, Austria)
[2022] Old Vic in association with Sonia Friedman Productions (London) w/Helen Hunt, Mark McKinney & Susan Kelechi Waston
[2022] Asolo Theater (Sarasota, FL) 
[2021] State Theater of South Australia (Adelaide)
[2021] Syracuse Stage (Syracuse, NY) 
[2020] Theatrical Outlet (Atlanta, GA) reading
[2019] Mosaic Theater (Washington, DC) production
[2019] InterAct Theater (Philadelphia, PA) production
[2019] Spreckles Theater (Sonoma, CA) production
[2019] Colt Coeur (New York City) production
[2019] Roundabout Theater Company (New York City) reading
[2018] South Coast Rep (Costa Mesa, CA) workshop
[2018] Aurora Theater (Berkeley, CA) production
[2016] Aurora Theater (Berkeley, CA) commission

Honors/Awards:
[2022] Top Ten Plays of 2022, INews London
[2022] Top Ten Plays of 2022, Spectator Magazine
[2022] Nomination, WhatsOnStage Award, Best New Play
[2019] Nomination, New York Drama Critics Circle Award
[2019] Honorable Mention, Top Ten Plays of 2019, Time Out New York
[2019] Will Glickman Award for Best New Play to Premiere in the SF Bay Area
[2018] Theater Bay Area Award, Outstanding New Play
[2018] San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Award, Best New Play
[2018] Rella Lossy Award Emerging Playwright Award

REVIEWS
 "The perfect play for our age of disagreement...[Eureka Day] is not only one of the funniest plays to open this year, it is one of the saddest." Ben Brantley, New York Times (Critics' Pick)

"So brilliantly yoked to the current American moment—its flighty politics, its deadly folly—that it makes you want to jump out of your skin...I’m still trying to figure out how hard is appropriate for a critic to laugh at the theatre; this night, I made myself hoarse." - Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker

"Reaches a peak of hilarity that would make Oscar Wilde envious. It’s that good. There wasn’t a soul in the theatre not convulsed with laughter...it is a shockingly beautiful piece of writing." Llyod Evans, The Spectator (Top Ten Play of The Year)

"Eureka! Here's the first copper-bottomed hit of the season...the wittiest scene I have enjoyed in a theater for years." Fiona Mountford, The I (*****)

"A needle-sharp comedy that packs a smart and timely punch." Nick Curtis, The Evening Standard (****) 

"This is the play that would have kept us sane during lockdown"  Clive Davis, The Times of London (****)

"One of the funniest plays I've seen for a long time  Daz Gale, All That Dazzles (*****)

"Reduces an audience of 1,000 people to helpless laughter...the writing [is] fiercely accurate. Sarah Crompton, WhatsOnStage (****) 

"Cryingly funny...a hit." Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph (****) 

"Laughter, weeping and silence: Three ideas that best encapsulate the experience of watching Eureka Day." Natallia Permain, The Upcoming (****) 

"Brilliantly funny and cleverly thought-provoking" Marianka Swain, London Theater (****)

"Wonderfully spiky...Spector and the expert cast extract comic gold from the little tugs-of-war for control" - Adam Feldman, Time Out New York (Critics' Pick)

"Eureka Day is not to be ignored...this caustically funny but trenchantly provocative comedy...devolves into one of the funniest comic whirlwinds on the current-day stage." - Steven Suskin, New York Stage Review (*****)

 "Prepare to be triggered into fits of laughter by Eureka Day, an extremely funny and ultimately thoughtful new comedy." Michael Sommers, New York Stage Review (*****)​

"A blisteringly satiric and provocative play...this may just prove to be the best play of the year, certainly one of the most challenging and engrossing." Victor Gluck, Theatrescene.net

"That it treads in such surefooted fashion from farce to heartbreak to gloves-off confrontation is a testament to author Jonathan Spector's nimble way with his characters...One is struck by Spector's remarkable facility for skewering his characters' affectations while allowing them their humanity. It's a pretty devastating combination and it helps to explain why Eureka Day is both loaded with laughter and armed with plenty to say about the way we live now." - David Barbour, Lighting and Sound America

"Both hysterically funny and deeply profound...despite the lampooning of so much of modern life in this play, Mr. Spector’s generosity of spirit is too great for any easy answers." Sue Rosenbluth, Two Sues On The Aisle

"Uproarious satire...a shrewd, cunning laceration." This Week In New York 

"Like the best satire, Eureka Day will provoke discussion and a sense of the real dilemmas of communicating in a deeply divided society. Spector’s mastery of liberal jargon captures the tenor of the left-wing pieties and marks him as a smart new voice in theater." - Edward Karam, Off Off Online​

"Topical, brilliant and timely." - Suzanna Bowling, Times Square Chronicles

"It is as timely a play as any for the times we live in today...would that real life were as entertaining and expertly written." Nella Vera, Culture Vulture

"Written by Mr. Spector with precision and biting insight...detailed performances bring out the truthfulness, sadness, and hilarity in Mr. Spector’s very timely play." - Adrian Dimanlig, The Hangover Report 

 "Jonathan Spector's play is so crisply defined that you might have to periodically remind yourself that you haven't already met these characters in real life...Spector proves as much as master of pathos as of comedy." - San Francisco Chronicle (Highest Rating)

"Talented playwright Jonathan Spector has achieved the almost impossible. He’s created an exceptional play that is laugh-out-loud funny, yet with an intelligent and introspective perspective...inventive, humorous and heartbreaking." - Berkeleyside

"Never has a work so successfully integrated the effect of social media, in real time, on our un-virtual lives,  as Jonathan Spector's play." - SF Weekly"
​
"There’s a scene toward the end of the first act in local playwright Jonathan Spector’s world premiere “Eureka Day” at the Aurora Theatre Company, that’s so funny — the audience will likely be laughing so loudly — that you won’t hear a word of the dialogue. But Spector’s writing is so beautifully calibrated, so carefully crafted, that somehow that’s OK." - San Francisco Examiner

"Screamingly funny, belly-laugh funny.... Eureka Day is a rarity, a profound comedy that hits on all cylinders..." - KPFA

“Eureka Day” may spark some agitated post-show conversations eerily mirroring the ones in the play. That just goes to show how keenly observed the comedy is. It hits awfully, gut-churningly close to home". - The Mercury News

"What a show...one of the funniest, laugh-out-loud-fist-in-mouth twenty minutes we have seen in years."  SF Theaterblog

"Eureka Day is theatre at its best" - Dogmom's Dish

"A hilarious and wise comedy...Eureka Day” is a delight. Spector’s play tells us all about ourselves." Theatritus.com

"A highly engaging, often hilarious, yet increasingly disturbing and thought-provoking examination." Theatre Eddys