Writer: Rajiv Joseph
Director: Alex Stroming
Spanning a period of three decades, Gruesome Playground Injuries unfortunately feels like it lasts those 30 years rather than its current 90-minute running time. If this production is to have any kind of future, a speedier and more economic approach should be adopted.
Presented through scenes out of chronological order, Rajiv Joseph’s play charts the relationship between Doug and Kayleen from the ages of eight through to 38. Accident-prone Doug always sports an injury, whether that is a missing tooth from a teenage brawl, a head wound from riding his bike off the school roof or a blinded eye from fooling around with fireworks. The injuries that Kayleen carries are displayed with less bravado, but are still as tender.
However, the will-they-won’t-they-get-together plot soon wears thin as pesky boyfriends and badly-timed comas get in the way. Regardless of the characters’ ages, each scene drags on as the one before, and their conversations are repetitive, all leading to the same conclusion. Doug is always boyish; Kayleen always sullen.
Kristyna Havelkova (Kayleen) and Rudra Bharadwaj (Doug) are certainly committed to their roles, but they struggle – and the script doesn’t help – to make their characters feel real. There are only so many missed opportunities the audience can take. Indeed, the best parts of the show are the scene changes where the actors delve into boxes to change their clothes, but these finely choreographed sequences only serve to make the already too-long play even longer. Props are brought out from the sides and then hastily returned; benches are moved ad infinitum.
There’s a twist involving magic powers at the end, but it doesn’t feel earned at all, and then Joseph doesn’t know what to do with it, and it’s quickly forgotten.
Runs until 28 February 2026
