Doug and Kayleen meet at the age of eight at the school nurse’s office. With tender, bruised care they feel the thorns in each other’s paws and become bonded for life. In the span of thirty years, the two drift in and out of shared moments and realities that morph into precious yet prickly jewels. Along the way, Doug and Kayleen seek comfort in the primally violent metaphors of love nested in the other’s reflection.
Gruesome Playground Injuries, written by the critically acclaimed Rajiv Joseph, paints a portrait of a relationship that is existential, neurotic and endlessly beautiful. It blends the brutality with the poetry of interpersonal dependency. The non-linearity in which the story unfolds lays bare the salted wounds and broken bones that become the material for a romantic myth and a chronically toxic reality. It is a love story that is seldom told, perhaps often denied but commonly lived.
