When “Gruesome Playground Injuries,” playing at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street) through December 28, begins, an innocent, youthful energy emanates from the two actors on the stage. Kara Young’s Kaylene is delightful, curious, and adventurous, even though dealing with her personal demons. Nicholas Braun is funny, a daredevil, and accident-prone as Doug. These characters meet in the nurse’s office at their Catholic high school.
Our first encounter with these characters is engaging, funny, and a little gross, as Doug deals with a head injury he received after a very dangerous action. As the story — very poignantly written by Rajiv Joseph — moves along, we see how these two young people develop a relationship as best friends. We see their interactions in hospital rooms as Doug continuously gets hurt by purposely performing dangerous actions, and we witness Kaylene’s self-harming behavior. While these two vulnerable characters latch onto each other, it’s like the blind leading the blind. In this case, their dysfunction seems to uniquely bind them.
We move forward on Kaylene and Doug’s journey and also in flashback scenes, in which we learn more troubling issues that these characters are handling. Kaylene’s mental health issues have built up due to her dysfunctional home life — she and her father were abandoned by her mother, and her father never felt she would amount to anything. As much as Doug wants to protect his friend, he cannot. He has his own issues of self-harm that he is dealing with, although his home life seems stabler than Kaylene’s. Their relationship is complicated.
It is very interesting to watch as these vulnerable characters go through near-death experiences — especially Doug — and move in and out of each other’s lives. The chemistry between Young and Braun is captivating to behold. Parts of this drama will have you in tears — I heard people around me crying during a number of crucial moments.
Young clearly demonstrates her versatility as an actress, as she effortlessly inhabits each stage of her character Kaylene, from the curious high school student to the adult acknowledging growing up in a troubled household, feeling abandoned at critical points in her life, and continuously practicing self-harm. Braun’s character at first seems to be just a daredevil who does not see his actions as anything other than brave. As he grows older, he continues to put himself in dangerous situations, while seeming to believe that Kaylene has a power where she can heal his wounds by simply touching him. This is an interesting belief … to a point.
This play demonstrates how complicated people’s friendships can be, especially when there are factors in their lives that they feel are out of their control. It begs the questions of what are the factors that can lead a person to self-harm, and when does a friendship change into a somewhat toxic relationship?
There is an element of vulnerability that the actors share, as they change their clothes in view of the audience whenever the scene is changing. There’s something very touching about that. These actors deliver quite layered performances that leave you feeling you have experienced a very special play.
The production has scenic design by Arnulfo Maldonado, costume design by Sarah Laux, lighting design by Japhy Weideman, sound design and original music by David Van Tieghem, and makeup design by Brian Strumwasser.
For ticket information, visit lortel.org.