Gruesome Playground Injuries, The Glitch Review
Written by Bronagh for Theatre & Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
Content warnings: blood, self harm and bodily injury
Gruesome Playground Injuries spans a long standing friendship between Doug and Kayleen, starting from a meeting in the nurse’s office as young children.. The next hour and ten minutes is a more unconventional love story, a whirlwind of self-destruction, hurt and perhaps a few too many injuries for one person.
Gruesome Playground Injuries, written by Pulitzer Prize nominee Rajiv Joseph, starts out in the school nurse’s office. We meet Kayleen (Katie Matsell) who has stomach ache and Doug (Seb Carrington) who has done his best Evil Knievel impression which has landed him with a few bumps. From there on the pair connect and drift apart over the following years, coming together due to literal and figurative painful experiences. We witness the heartbreak of parents’ passing, when the other gets into a relationship which may not be for the best, and when both spiral into turmoil.
Short scenes are linked together by short interludes of music, dimmed lights and both characters dressing and undressing at either side of the space. Watching this is slightly like watching Wimbledon, your head whipping back and forth between the two. At first, I quite enjoyed this, watching the pair change into outfits very much of the time and applying makeup to emulate bruises and mud. However, towards the end I found this did slow the pace down slightly. Kudos to Matsell and Carrington, however, as putting on a pair of tights or lacing up trainers in a short space of time is no mean feat especially with an audience watching.
Time isn’t linear and we switch between childhood and adulthood throughout with injuries becoming less playground and a lot more gruesome in nature. Time veers between more innocent moments to much more adult topics; as an audience we are either stunned into silence or laughing out loud at a comment that has just been made.
Kayleen is the quieter character who is fixated on her stomach, while Doug is the ‘joker’ who is always hurting himself usually doing something wacky. Matsell and Carrington play brilliant parts, not skipping a beat throughout. Both tap into the vulnerable sides of their characters, Kayleen being the more obviously vulnerable character and Doug being more overtly humorous. As a polar opposite pair, they bounce off one another brilliantly and are a joy to watch.
The performance space is through a door labelled ‘staff only’, down a set of stairs and into a space larger than your average ‘pub theatre’. The set, designed by Tomás Palmer, is made up of dressing tables at either side of the room where makeup and outfits are stored, and what I can only describe as those mats you used to use in PE in primary school – you know the ones! They act as a hospital bed, a funeral home and the location of a high school dance which is accompanied by lighting designed by Chris McDonnell including dimming and flickering of lights. The set and lighting are all quite understated, and don’t take away the shine from the plot and acting.
The Glitch is a great venue, and I hope to see many more shows here. The atmosphere is very fun and welcoming, a wide range of drinks on offer as well as cheese toasties – what more could you want?!
Gruesome Playground Injuries is fascinating, hilarious and, above all, a reminder of how messy life can get. A solid production overall.
At The Glitch until 24th March 2025
★ ★ ★ ★
