REVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
There’s a peculiar kind of comedy that begins with that warm smile of recognition yet ends with a wince. Stray Cat Theatre’s new production of EUREKA DAY lives somewhere in that uncomfortable space between the two. Now playing at Tempe Center for the Arts through October 17, the play invites you to laugh at its characters before revealing how much you recognize them.
Under Farber’s sharp direction, the joke is rarely that these people care about tolerance or inclusion. It’s what happens when the language designed to make disagreement possible becomes a way of avoiding disagreement altogether.
The production’s centerpiece is the virtual town hall, where scenic design by Harrison Rosenberg and media design by Rob Littlefield work together to provide one of the best scenes in the play. What begins as an attempt at democratic engagement collapses into a digital shouting match, with a scrolling cascade of comments projected behind the actors. It’s an inspired piece of Stray Cat’s theatrical stagecraft as accusations fly, and all that carefully cultivated language of mutual respect proves remarkably fragile.
By the time the meeting adjourns, the polite language of the opening scenes has lost much of its protective coating. What remains is messier and considerably more honest. Stray Cat Theatre’s incisive production of EUREKA DAY offers no convenient prescription. Instead, it leaves you with the uncomfortable business of deciding what it means to listen when listening alone is no longer enough.