Jennifer Justice
Sarah Hassam as Kayleen and Max Young-Jones as Doug.
In Gruesome Playground Injuries — a Madison Theatre Guild production running through March 9 at the Bartell Theatre — playwright Rajiv Joseph explores the intersecting lives of Kayleen (Sarah Hassam) and Doug (Max Young-Jones). The two “meet hurt” in elementary school after visiting the school nurse and continue to crash, limp and explode into each other over the course of 30+ years.
Joseph, best known for writing Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, which starred Robin Williams during its limited run on Broadway, has written a play about two wounded souls who share a morbid fascination with each others’ maladies and injuries. Beneath her stoic exterior, Kayleen is a cutter who is plagued with depression, stomach ailments and a difficult relationship with her father. Doug has a breezier demeanor, but courts danger and serious injury by constantly putting himself in harm’s way. His accidents can’t all be attributed to clumsiness; he’s an attention seeker and the one whose attention he most seeks is Kayleen. He believes that she can help heal his injuries, no matter how squeamish she may be about examining them and touching them.
Time zig-zags as we watch their symbiotic relationship unfold — adulthood back to middle school, with stops in high school and that nebulous post-college time. Director Suzan Kurry gives the actors a lot to do. There are quick costume changes that occur in front of us (probably necessary, because it gives the audience something to see between scenes). A cart laden with supplies is wheeled out during each scene break, and the actors essentially have a corner team like boxers in the ring. But in this case, the “cut man” is working in reverse — creating wounds. Makeup artist Bridget Doxtater does good work, nimbly producing authentic-looking injuries.
The two characters perform a tug a war before each scene, with the rope landing on the year written on the floor indicating that there has been another shift in time. At first I thought, this ritual was a fine way to alert us, but as the play went on (90 minutes with no intermission, by the way) it started to feel tedious, as did Kayleen’s obligatory games of hopscotch.
Amy C. May’s set turns the narrow theater space into a playground with a slide, see-saw and swings, which are all employed in different, clever ways. The actors also use a chalkboard to write messages and doodle graffiti.
Hassam and Young-Jones each have some excellent moments. On opening night, I kept hoping that they would both shine together at the same time in the same scene — and that may come to pass during the play’s run. Hassam wowed me during a middle school scene, which culminates in the two throwing up together. She strikes exactly the right truculent notes as a middle schooler straddling the thin line between fascination and repulsion. She is also compelling when she visits a comatose Doug in the hospital; with a world-weary, matter-of-fact style she fills him in on her status and tries to jolt him back into consciousness. Young-Jones was best during the high school scene when he is outraged by Kayleen’s boyfriend’s treatment of her and probes her about her self-harm. Later during a wake, he moved me when he revealed to Kayleen the depth of his feelings for her and allowed himself to be vulnerable and raw.
Gruesome Playground Injuries, like life, is a little messy at times. But ultimately, Madison Theatre Guild has done an excellent job with a play that looks at the way we hurt each other, and ourselves.
