The Recommendation

As part of their 2025 season, SoHo Shakespeare Company presents a workshop production of Jonathan Caren’s The Recommendation that puts modern friendship under a fast, funny, and disarmingly honest microscope. Randomly assigned college roommates, Iskinder and Aaron, come from two different worlds. Aaron has charm, connections, and enough privilege and access to open any door, while Iskinder comes from an under-connected immigrant family. When a chance encounter with an accused felon spirals, their friendship is tested by race, class, and the “favors” economy that protects some and endangers others, forcing both to confront what we owe our friends when the stakes get real. For audiences who value poignant stories about the intersections of identity, this is a tight, clear-eyed night of theater with plenty to unpack. Expect crackling dialogue, high-wire moral questions, and the unsettling question at the heart of it all: what’s the true price of a recommendation?