AGREE TO DISAGREE

Earlier this week, I took my teenage daughter to see Eureka Day at Seattle Rep, and we both loved it. Jonathan Spector’s Tony-winning comedy is set at a progressive private school in Berkeley, where the people in charge insist on reaching agreement before making decisions. Then a case of mumps forces a discussion about vaccinations, and agreement becomes much harder to come by.

The casting is terrific. There’s some very recognizable mansplaining, and plenty of certainty dressed up as consideration. But the performances give you more than someone to roll your eyes at. A character can be maddening one moment and make you pause the next, wondering what’s behind a belief they won’t budge on. A virtual meeting, complete with parents’ comments, had us laughing especially hard. The quips are painfully spot-on. We’ve all watched an online discussion go sideways by now. Seeing it happen onstage makes it easier to step back and notice just how absurd we can be.

Ashley Song, Sara Hennessy, Nemuna Ceesay, Jonathan Slavin, and Quinn Mattfeld in Eureka Day (2026) at Seattle Rep. Scenic Design by Sara C Walsh.

Photo by Sayed Alamy

My daughter is at an age when she’s thinking more deeply about what she believes and why, and getting interested in the complicated parts of right and wrong. Watching these adults struggle to make a decision together, each so sure of their own position, was right up her alley. Satire doesn’t always work for me because it can slide so easily into cynicism, but these characters feel like full people, even—or especially—at their most self-righteous. My daughter wanted to talk about it the entire drive home. I loved getting to share that with her.

“We laugh because we recognize ourselves in their contradictions, good intentions, and frustrations,” Seattle Rep artistic director Dámaso Rodríguez says. “That act of recognition has always been at the center of the theater experience: seeing something true about ourselves played out on stage, and leaving with something to reflect on.”

We certainly had plenty to discuss. I highly recommend going—and bringing someone you’ll enjoy talking it over with afterward.

Eureka Day runs through November 15 at Seattle Rep’s Leo K. Theater. Tickets are available here.

Photo by Thomas John / Unsplash

AW, SHUCKS

The next time someone sets a beautifully shucked oyster in front of me, I’ll appreciate the work involved. Last week, I joined a media preview of the oyster-shucking class at Rosebay Bar at Hotel 1000. Executive chef Alejandro Ayala made it look so easy.

Over bubbles, cheese, and toasted bread, Ayala explained the oysters’ origins and the differences in their shells before we got to work. Shucking is harder than it looks! But once you get the hang of it, you start thinking, oh, I can totally do this. We ate our oysters and chatted, and I left with a delicious mignonette to take home. This would be such a fun night to plan with a group of friends.

The 90-minute class runs every third Thursday from 5:30-7 p.m. Reserve a spot here.

Photo by Sarah Stackhouse

A SOUTHSIDE SURPRISE

A little sloth named Herb arrived in my mail recently, courtesy of Explore Seattle Southside. The details won me over, including a willow goldfinch and rhododendron—Washington’s state bird and flower. Even the sloth has a local backstory. In 1961, during construction to expand Sea-Tac Airport, a worker uncovered the remains of a giant ground sloth that lived roughly 12,000-13,000 years ago.

Herb is one of five characters you might receive in the tourism organization’s new mystery boxes. Each comes with ideas for exploring SeaTac, Tukwila, and Des Moines. Herb’s outings involve gardens and birdwatching, while the others connect to food and aviation. A QR code underneath each figure gives you access to restaurant and attraction discounts.

I can only speak for Herb, but someone clearly had fun putting this together. Herb’s suggestions include Zenith Holland Nursery and Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden. I’ve never been to either, and I’d happily make an afternoon of those two stops.

You can request a box at MicroadventureMysteryBox.com while supplies last.

Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum’s Outer Stars, published by University of North Texas Press.

Photo by Nathan Lunstrum

JUST ONE MORE PAGE

I’m a story and a half into Outer Stars, a collection of seven stories by local author Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum, and already looking forward to more. Her prose has a lovely ease to it, moving with the lightness and grace of a dancer. I wanted to slow down and appreciate the sentences, but the first story was so compelling that I couldn’t stop reading. There’s a distinctly Pacific Northwest atmosphere to what I’ve read so far, with mentions of illness and environmental destruction bringing a familiar unease to the storytelling.

Our editor-in-chief, Rachel Gallaher, wrote about Lunstrum last year, and I loved learning that her father, a pastor and poet, would say his sermons aloud as he worked on them. What a way to grow up hearing how sentences sound. I’m still early in this book, but I love finding writing this pretty and knowing there’s more waiting.