←Recommendations of Pareidolia

Premiere Stages, the professional Equity theatre company in residence at Kean University, is pleased to recognize Pareidolia by Kareem Fahmy as a Semi-Finalist for the 2026 Premiere Play Festival. Pareidolia rose through a competitive process to become one of 65 Semi-Finalists out of 894 submissions. The play was an engaging tug-of-war exploration of connection, realities, and illusions – all beautifully shown through Mal’s heartfelt vulnerability. Our congratulations and thanks to Kareem.

A rom-com and a thriller that makes us ask our own questions about how we connect with the people around us. I admire this play for its craft, and I enjoy it for its emotional core.

A superbly written and nuanced play about connection, relationships, alienation, and dating. Hilarious, unsettling, and heartbreaking, "Pareidolia" straddles a number of genres and moods quite well. I also love the unique theatrical world Fahmy builds by splicing the online world, naturalistic scenes, and some magical sounding montage/collage towards the end and in the wedding scene. I would love to see this staged, as it seems like an exciting adventure for directors and designers as well as actors. At the heart of this play are well developed characters--both the sympathetic Mal, and the other eclectic individuals.

Online dating remains one of the most dangerous landscapes for good reason, yet it has taken over. Kareem brilliantly uses this to launch into a romantic comedy thriller that completely captures us. Grips us until the end!

A haunting play about alienation and unknowability in the modern dating world. How well do we know the people on the other side of our dating apps? Can we ever know them? It's a thriller, it's a romantic comedy, and it dramatizes our cyber "reality" in ways that brought to my mind sci fi writers like Philip K Dick. I was on the edge of my seat by the end.

I had the pleasure of reading this play a year or two ago, and still can't get it out of my head. It's strange, dark, and disturbing, combining all the high-wire tension of the best thrillers with the depth of emotion one wants from a romance. Is there such a thing as a romantic thriller? There is now.