**** Gruesome Playground Injuries
Not all injuries show on the surface. Luckily, this starry duo is equipped to dig deep.
Kara Young and Nicholas Braun in Gruesome Playground Injuries. Photo: Emilio Madrid
Track a character from age 8 to 38, in a two-hander that ensures each performer equal stage time and an equitably shared spotlight? No wonder Rajiv Joseph’s 2011 play appeals to theatre students and auditioners hoping to pull off a coup de force. Drama teachers and casting agents have been known to quail, because it takes a pair of real pros to wring the poignancy from this – let’s face it – rather schematic if ultimately touching exercise.
Playing children is no picnic, to start: While it’s relatively easy to age up, aging down courts cutesiness. Fortunately, under the direction of Neil Pepe, the pair of headliners tackling this challenge – two-times-in-a-row Tony winner Kara Young and Succession scene-stealer (“Cousin Greg”) Nicholas Braun – are patently up to the task.
In this meet-cute but not end-cozy scenario, two kids strike up a teasing rapport in the school infirmary. (Arnulfo Maldonado provides the appropriately antiseptic set, consisting of two uninviting beds with sufficient space outside a paneled frame for in-full-view costume and makeup adjustments.) Kayleen is in for a stomachache – or so she says (we’ll eventually learn more about why she’s a child in need of succor). Doug’s damage is gorily on the surface: His whole head is wrapped in blood-soaked gauze.
Kayleen, immediately intrigued, pursues one “why” after another. It soon becomes apparent that Doug is not just accident-prone. He’s a proactive accident-seeker – riding his bike off the parochial school roof, for instance, while “playing Evel Knievel.” As Doug regales Kayleen with detailed reports on other recent scrapes, it’s a safe bet that he’s headed for a lifetime of rough-and-tumble self-dares, with ever-escalating consequences.
Kayleen’s damage is subtler but ultimately just as draining. Will these two broken beings forge a bond along their fracture lines and grow, to quote Hemingway (another braggadocious daredevil), “strong at the broken places”? Within limits: Each has a formidable wabi-sabi task to perform just in trying to hold their individual selves together.
If it takes two marquee names to pack the tiny, valiant Lucille Lortel Theatre (est. 1953), more power to them. Theatre has been hurting of late – the off-Broadway sector especially. Do your part and show up for these bold performers (provided you can score a scarce ticket). I can promise that it won’t hurt a bit.
Details: Gruesome Playground Injuries, to December 28