Pulitzer Prize Finalist Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries will return to the New York stage in a new production starring three-time Emmy Award nominee Nicholas Braun and two-time Tony Award winner Kara Young, and directed by Tony Award Nominee Neil Pepe. Over the course of 30 years, the lives of Kayleen and Doug intersect at the most bizarre intervals, leading the two childhood friends to compare scars and the physical calamities that keep drawing them together.
In the first scene, Young delivers the best performance by an adult actor of a child character since Anika Noni Rose played a kid in the original 2003 production of “Caroline, or Change.” Braun isn’t quite as convincing – who would be? – but he’s admirably effective playing a little boy despite this actor being over six feet tall.
The title warns you: This show is not for the squeamish. Brian Strumwasser's makeup design is impressively, grossly realistic, from cuts on Kayleen's leg to Doug's bloody eye socket (this isn't really a spoiler). I was almost surprised that the instances of vomit are only mimed. The show is not even 90 minutes, though, so like a flu shot, the pain and bleeding will be over before you know it.
| 2011 | Off-Broadway |
Second Stage Theatre Production Off-Broadway |
| 2025 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
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