Over the course of 30 years in Rajiv Joseph’s two-hander Gruesome Playground Injuries, childhood friends Kayleen (Irene Hamilton) and Doug (Jimmy Bartlebaugh) both suffer more than their share of scrapes, bruises, and near-fatal events. The pair’s complicated friendship likewise encounters a few close calls in their lifelong shared journey of hurt and healing.
Alternately brooding and lighthearted, the play hovers between heartfelt coming-of-age drama, star-crossed romance, and persistent gallows humor surrounding Kayleen and Doug’s preponderance of painful, sometimes gruesome, ills and injuries.
Hamilton, in particular, nails the task of locating and maintaining the essence of who Kayleen is at any given age and under many different circumstances. Her Kayleen at eight is a bright, precocious precursor to the teenager, then woman, she will become. Composed as a suite of duets between two souls bonded in pain as much as love, the play expresses those notes eloquently through Kayleen. “Girls don’t get scars,” Doug tells her when they’re kids. He shows his scars off with pride. Hers, for the most part, she keeps hidden away. When she can’t hold back the torrent of emotions eating her up inside, Hamilton lets it flow naturally, so it’s resounding but not loud. At Doug’s hospital bedside after he’s been struck by lightning, Hamilton portrays Kayleen’s fear of losing him, not to the lightning but to another woman, as an aching fear of loneliness that pretty much sums up the human condition.
The play marks time with helpful captions projected above Josh Sticklin’s brick and concrete playground set. Along with the swings and slide, and see-saws supported by cinder blocks, the playground is littered with hazards, both a humorous touch and a stark fact of life.
The co-directors mark the passage of time by spinning that set on the stage turntable, with the actors visibly doing their costume changes on the rotating playground. … Yet, when the set settles they’re on their marks, and ready to resume Kayleen and Doug’s tandem odyssey at whichever gruesome injury has once again brought them close. Love, and pain, will keep these two together.
