‘Gruesome Playground Injuries’ at Players' Ring Theatre

PORTSMOUTH – In collaboration with Bardo Theatre Company, “Gruesome Playground Injuries” will be on stage at the Players’ Ring Theatre Feb. 28 through March 16.

Written by Rajiv Joseph and directed by Tyler Christie, this unconventional drama tells of a different kind of love through sharp humor and even sharper insights into the human condition.

After the success of “Is Edward Snowden Single?” and “The Aliens,” Players’ Ring and Bardo present a thrilling and atypical love story. Doug (played by Dylan S. Wallach) and Kayleen (Kari Buckley) meet at the nurse’s office in their elementary school. Kayleen has a painful stomach ache, and Doug is all banged up from a running dive off the roof of the school. 

Over the next 30 years, these scar-crossed lovers meet again and again, brought together by injury, heartbreak, and their own self-destructive tendencies. With great compassion and humor, playwright Rajiv Joseph (Broadway’s “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo”) crafts a compelling and unconventional story about the intimacy between two people when they allow their defenses to drop and their wounds to show.

Feb 28 – March 16: Thursdays at 7 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30 p.m.