{"id":110,"date":"2013-07-25T13:30:16","date_gmt":"2013-07-25T13:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.azotheatre.dreamhosters.com\/az\/?p=110"},"modified":"2013-10-28T22:16:10","modified_gmt":"2013-10-28T22:16:10","slug":"azeotropes-gutwrenching-gruesome-playground-injuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.azotheatre.dreamhosters.com\/az\/?p=110","title":{"rendered":"City Arts: Azeotrope\u2019s gutwrenching \u2018Gruesome Playground Injuries\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Gemma Wilson<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cGirls don\u2019t get scars,\u201d says eight-year-old Doug, in the opening scene of Rajiv Joseph\u2019s spare two-hander\u00a0Gruesome Playground Injuries<\/em>. He\u2019s talking to Kayleen, also eight, and his current companion in the school nurse\u2019s office. Doug busted his face riding his bike off the roof; Kayleen has an ever-present tummy ache, because she \u201chas bad thoughts,\u201d according to her mother.<\/p>\n

This is the beginning of a friendship that could hardly be described as beautiful\u2014tragic, elemental, broken, maybe, but not beautiful. Both Doug and Kayleen have a need to hurt themselves, but for very different reasons and in very different ways, and this shared craving tethers them together through the years.<\/p>\n

After meeting them at the age of eight, we jump around in time through the next 30 years in Doug and Kayleen\u2019s friendship, from scene to scene, super-titled by the age and injury that defines it. Age 23: Eye blown out. Age 13: The Limbo. Doug is a reckless daredevil who can’t seem to stop injuring himself, Kayleen’s wounds are harder to see.<\/p>\n

Obviously, this is not a linear story. We\u2019re not following Doug and Kayleen through life, watching their relationship grow and change and blossom. It\u2019s a colder examination than that, trimmed of any emotional fat. These are the moments that matter for these two, and not a moment is wasted.<\/p>\n

Gruesome Playground Injuries<\/em>\u00a0is the latest production from Azeotrope, the fledgling theatre company that made waves with its 2012 production of\u00a0Jesus Hopped the A Train,\u00a0<\/em>following a well-received 2010 debut with Adam Rapp\u2019s controversial\u00a0Red Light Winter<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Azeotrope founder and co-artistic director Richard Nguyen Sloniker has become a fixture on the Seattle theatre scene, and we\u2019re lucky to have him. As Doug and Kayleen, Sloniker and the L.A.-based Amanda Zarr navigate the complicated technicalities of the script gracefully\u2014playing ages 8 through 38 with subtlety and minimal shtick\u2014no small feat.<\/p>\n

Sloniker\u2019s Doug is as guileless as Zarr\u2019s Kayleen is guarded, and under the nimble direction of Azeotrope founder and co-artistic director Desdemona Chiang,\u00a0Gruesome Playground Injuries<\/em>\u00a0packs an emotional sucker punch. And I mean that in the best possible way.<\/p>\n

As important as the scenes is onstage choreography that happens between them, as Sloniker and Zarr change clothes, wipe away blood and re-divide the small playing space by changing the configuration of the many curtains on metal rods that criss-cross the ceiling. (The clever, clinical set design is by Deanna Zibello.)<\/p>\n

Just as this isn\u2019t a linear story, it also isn\u2019t a love story. Not in the traditional sense, anyway. There may have been romance for Doug and Kayleen in another life, but in this go-round they are never in the same place at the same time. What they share is that intense intimacy reserved only for the people who know your darkest, most painful secrets. It\u2019s an essential relationship, and one these two rely on, sometimes without realizing it. But it isn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n

The brisk evening (clocking in at under 90 minutes, no intermission) can feel a little flat at times, but blame for that lies with the playwright. Joseph, who was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his 2011 Broadway play\u00a0Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo<\/em>, has pared down this story a little too much. Since we only see Doug and Kayleen at pivotal, painful moments in their lives, it\u2019s hard to understand why it is they care so deeply about one another. Yes, it\u2019s trimmed of the fat, but it\u2019s that emotional fat that defines relationships, the small, seemingly insignificant interactions that comprise a shared life. Even so, I teared up once or twice, watching these two need one another so intensely, but fail to connect. Blood may be gory, but disappointment like that is gruesome.<\/p>\n

Gruesome Playground Injuries\u00a0is running through Aug. 11 at The Little Theatre.<\/em><\/p>\n

http:\/\/cityartsonline.com\/azeotrope-gruesome-playground-injuries-review<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Gemma Wilson \u201cGirls don\u2019t get scars,\u201d says eight-year-old Doug, in the opening scene of Rajiv Joseph\u2019s spare two-hander\u00a0Gruesome Playground Injuries. He\u2019s talking to Kayleen, also eight, and his current companion in the school nurse\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[22,12,24],"class_list":["post-110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-press","tag-city-arts","tag-gruesome-playground-injuries","tag-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.azotheatre.dreamhosters.com\/az\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.azotheatre.dreamhosters.com\/az\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.azotheatre.dreamhosters.com\/az\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.azotheatre.dreamhosters.com\/az\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.azotheatre.dreamhosters.com\/az\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.azotheatre.dreamhosters.com\/az\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197,"href":"http:\/\/www.azotheatre.dreamhosters.com\/az\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions\/197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.azotheatre.dreamhosters.com\/az\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.azotheatre.dreamhosters.com\/az\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.azotheatre.dreamhosters.com\/az\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.azotheatre.dreamhosters.com\/az\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}