By Carol Davis
SAN DIEGO—The next time you ask someone for a recommendation, you’d better ask the right person; one whose connected, is dependable and knows almost everything about you. Asking one who is connected can open doors. Asking one who is dependable will assure you get the recommendation. Asking one who knows almost everything about you means they don’t have to lie about any of your past indiscretions, if any. But more importantly, see that they follow through.
Such was the case with Dwight Barnes (Jimonn Cole) a seasoned prisoner who found himself in a holding cell (the drunk tank) at the Hollywood Community Station with first time offender Aaron Feldman (Evan Todd). When Aaron heard that the two were being transferred to another location, possibly to County, he fell apart and begged Dwight to cover his back. In return, Aaron would make sure that his big time operator Dad, a high class Beverly Hills attorney, would put in a good recommendation for him to serve little or no time. (“I’ll do anything if you’ll help me. My Dad’s a big time lawyer. He can help you with whatever you need to be helped with.”)
In Jonathan Caren’s new three-people play (read world premiere of The Recommendation) race, class and friendship; loyalty and trust are at the center of this modern day character study. Caren’s plays have been featured at Manhattan Theatre Club, The Ensemble Studio Theatre and several other small venues and his original Catch a Fish won Most Outstanding Play in the 2007 Fringe Festival. In this his newest play, he poses some very interesting scenarios about who we are under pressure as opposed to the public face we like to show off to our peers. In other words, ‘it’s never about who you know…but who really knows you’.
Iskinder Iudoku (Brandon Gill), Izzy is a first generation middle class American of mixed race, with an Ethiopian father and white American mother and no ties or pull to further his career. Aaron Feldman (Evan Todd) is upper class, privileged from a wealthy, white family with lots of connections. Dwight Barnes (Jimonn Cole) is a hustler who can be charming and menacing at the same time. He will be in need of an influential connection later on in the play. As you can see Caren’s three young men from different backgrounds, race and social class are as different as night is from day.
By chance, Aaron and Izzy were roommates at major Ivy League college. Just know that they both received an excellent education and Izzy, with a recommendation from Aaron’s father was an easy candidate for entrance into UCLA law school after graduating from Brown, Magna Cum Laude. Aaron, on the other hand is destined to work in the film industry with the hope of becoming rich and successful one day, like his father before him. Both have promising careers. But as fate will have it, a minor DMV violation changes the course of events they had all so carefully planned out. This is where Dwight, our small time criminal, enters into the picture described above.
Crisply directed by Jonathan Munby and narrated by Izzy, The Recommendation follows the careers and vicissitudes of Izzy and Aaron as they make their way through college and past grad school, becoming the best of friends, attending sporting events, buying the right cars, sitting in the best box seats and meeting all the right people to further their careers. Both become successful. Both continue their friendship but things go awry when Izzy loses his job at his high power law firm.
At this time he decides to take a break from his regular routine, and give back to the community by taking on a pro bono case. As fate would have it, he decides to re examine Dwight’s minor conviction (five years later he’s still sitting it out in prison because Aaron never did intervene for him as he had promised) because he thinks mistakes were made.
Aaron goes ballistic because he had confessed a crime to Dwight all those years ago when they were in jail for that very short time and Izzy’s bringing up the past will only stir the pot and anger Dwight even more about that unfulfilled promise. He thinks he convinces Izzy to agree not to follow through. But it was not meant to be and, well, the next time we meet up with the three of them, Dwight is a maintenance man in the sports club of which Izzy and Aaron are members.
Funny thing about friendships, relationships and or unspoken promises, they can turn on a dime and even without knowing it, all the favors we do, the expectations we have, the recommendations we give or not and the special treatment we allow to enhance our friendships just because we can, can be the very cause of the moral dilemmas and turmoil we often find ourselves confronted with.
Caren’s play under the deft direction of Munby moves along at a steady and snappy pace. With the help of set designer Alexander Dodge’s industrial looking and mobile props, furniture and fixtures move in and out, off and on the stage in what might be considered a play within a play, the look is as modern as the young men themselves. Linda Cho’s costume design is fitting for the personalities; Philip S. Rosenberg’s industrial looking lighting design is a mixed bag and Lindsay Jones original music and sound design is right on target.
All three men move about the theatre in the round as if it was their private playground. The terrific and dynamically pulsated acting by all three young men gives the play, which at times gets bogged down with too many ideas all at once, an urgency only seen in the younger generation anxious to drive and strive to the top as soon as their little legs and ideas can take them.
The most explosive of the three, Jimonn Cole’s Dwight is also the most menacing and has the most profound effect on the other two. He does it with ease and confidence. Evan Todd’s Aaron is just about right as the spoiled kid from a privileged family and Brandon Gill is mesmerizing as Izzy, the young man torn between two worlds hoping to bring honor to his immigrant father. “Son, his father warned, “before I left Ethiopia, a wise man told me: Be wary of the man who promises you the world. For if you accept his offer, then you must carry the weight of the world on your shoulders.”
My recommendation is that you see this show sooner rather than later.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: through Feb. 26th
Organization: The Old Globe
Phone: 619-234-5623
Production Type: Drama
Where: 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park
Ticket Prices: start at $29.00
Web: theoldglobe.org
Venue: White Theatre
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Davis is a San Diego based theatre critic. She may be contacted at carol.davis@sdjewishworld.com