Review: GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES at Keegan Theatre

GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES, the opening title of Keegan Theatre’s 30th season, tricks you right off the bat. It first promises something light, familiar, and maybe even nostalgic. After all, how serious can it get after seeing the play’s opening scene, with two 8-year-old children hanging out and having fun on the playground and then later together in the school nurse’s office with their respective ailments? Well, turns out it can get pretty serious. And a little dark. But still funny and heartfelt. Kind of like life.

Yes, Rajiv Joseph’s GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES is like life in about 90 minutes. What begins with the harmless charm of childhood quickly unfolds into something far more expansive, tracing the messy, tender, and often painful ways two people can orbit each other over the course of a lifetime. It’s a story that sneaks up on you, not with twists, but with emotional truths that land harder than you anticipate, and this production embraces that journey with both humor and heart. 

What follows this innocent opening scene with the 8-year-olds is a journey back-and-forth through time following the evolution of a friendship between Kayleen (Irene Hamilton) and Doug (Jimmy Bartlebaugh) over the course of 30 years. We started on the playground as an entry point, but we will be with these two as they navigate middle school dances, puberty, sexual exploration, loss, love, and even addiction. 

And Joseph’s piece does a great job of capturing the roller coaster of emotions that come with growing up and all of the above. And it’s very real and a bit raw. It takes us back into these moments that we experienced once upon a time, at least those of us old enough to have gone through a bit of life ourselves. Many of us know the heartbreak of unrequited love, of not being able to understand everything that’s changing around you, and of the pain that comes with the loss of childhood innocence. There are so many entry points for the audience to connect with the script and the actors, and it undoubtedly elevates the play.  

Through the trials and tribulations of our two characters, two constants really stick out. First, Kayleen and Doug seem to have a cosmic connection. Try as they might to lead separate lives, they inevitably end up back in each other’s orbit. Like heat-seeking missiles, we witness 30 years of collisions between the two, and it seems to happen whether they want to reunite or not. Where one goes, the other is sure to pop up eventually. 

Second, Doug just can’t stop getting hurt. There’s an argument to be made that the injuries are the universe’s way of bringing them back together. Or perhaps Doug’s way of taking on the physical pain for Kayleen and both of them (unsuccessfully, I might add). You can be the judge for yourself there. Interestingly, it always seems that Kayleen’s presence heals Doug…and vice versa, despite Kayleen’s denials that this is so. They seemingly heal each other, but sometimes it varies whether the healing is inside or out. 

It’s an intriguing road map for the show, but Joseph doesn’t quite provide a smooth landing to end it. Akin to real life, where tidy bows and clean endings are rare, the play leaves you without a clear resolution and instead prefers to let these characters just sort of wander off and continue on their lives. It admittedly bugged me at first as I made the walk home after the show last Saturday night, but it’s that slice of realism that sets the piece apart from other contemporary works in the American theatre. 

As Kayleen, Irene Hamilton excels, especially when dealing with the character’s struggles in her 20s and 30s. Keegan audiences will remember her turn in Webster’s Bitch, which netted the talented actress a well-deserved Helen Hayes nomination. She unsurprisingly shows real skill with the role, which requires a lot from the actress lucky enough to tackle this challenging arc. We see her Kayleen across the ages: as an awkward tween wrestling with the first signs of an eating disorder, as a teenage exploring her sexuality, and an adult who’s forced to grow up really fast in her early 20s. Hamilton is excellent in nearly all phases.

Hamilton is matched in skill by Jimmy Bartlebaugh’s Doug. His character is similarly asked to leap between time periods, maturity, and vastly different phases of life in quick succession, and there’s no doubt Bartlebaugh has the chops to pull it off. He’s wonderful in the teenage years, especially as a young man not yet adept at expressing feelings in a healthy way other than testosterone-fueled rage that often leaves him with the signature physical scars that come to define his character. 

We can’t help but root for him through his adulthood, either, as Bartlebaugh nails the sincerity and honesty of Doug’s 20s and 30s. And these traits are perfectly encapsulated when, towards the end of the play, an exasperated Doug exclaims, “Why does everyone have to be so mean?!” I couldn’t help but be moved by his pure heart in that statement. He’s a good guy, which makes his various and increasingly more severe injuries that much harder to watch. 

Though these two are mostly excellent, they don’t quite get off to a great start when portraying the 8-year-old children. Ironically, this seems like the “easiest” part of the script compared to all the drama that comes after this opening scene, but it’s the only time where Hamilton and Bartlebaugh don’t seem as honest and connected to their characters. It’s the only point where their characters feel more like caricatures. Easy criticism to offer when considering neither actor seems close to 8, but I digress. Though it is a bumpy start to the proceedings, it fortunately gets exponentially better from there. 

And both do a stellar job of handling the play’s ambiguous nature. Joseph, in a seemingly intentional way, doesn’t exactly provide clear answers on the “will they, won’t they” aspect of Kayleen and Doug’s relationship, for instance. After having seen the play, I can’t even tell you if these two are in love (they probably are) and should be together forever (they probably should be) or if they should never see each other again (they probably shouldn’t). 

It’s life on stage because, as we know, life itself often provides very little clarity when it comes to those we love. In the end, they do love each other on some level. It just may not be in a romantic, Nicholas Sparks-type way. Kayleen says it best in the play’s final scene when she asks Doug, “Why’d you have to get caught in the spokes of my train wreck?” Doug, always the poet, points out that trains don’t have spokes. There’s a deeper metaphor here somewhere that I could explain, but trust me when I say that this is just perfection in the context of the show. 

Special recognition must be given to Scenic Designer and Technical Director, Josh Sticklin. The playground he’s designed is a literal playground but also a metaphorical one. It looks like a conventional playground you’d find in a park or elementary school yard, but it serves as the “playground” for the life that unfolds between our two characters. Its flexibility is impressive as it drops us into hospital rooms, funeral homes, and the nurse’s office at a middle school dance. The transition scenes are well done too, with on-stage changes that happen without taking us out of the world of the play…not to mention the “period” music that took this millennial through a musical journey of nostalgia. 

Additionally, one cannot pen a review of GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES without mentioning the makeup and prosthetics, which are a critical component in a piece such as this. Kudos to Alison Johnson, who is credited with these two areas as well as the costumes. I especially loved Kayleen’s middle school dance outfit complete with sparkly top and a long-sleeved shirt underneath. 

Girls who dressed like that would freeze me with terror back in 2001 when I was scouring my middle school gym working up the guts to ask for a dance. Well done, Alison, and thank you for helping me re-visit that little nugget tucked away in my memory. 

Finally, one can’t help but give shine to Autumn Tustin, who led the production’s Intimacy. Tustin no doubt helped these two actors navigate the relationship outlined above, and it speaks volumes to the work done here behind the scenes. The intimate moments are honest, tender, and quite beautiful to watch. 

In the end, GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES lingers less for its plot than for the emotional residue it leaves behind. The way it captures two people stumbling through life, hurting and healing each other in ways they don’t always understand. It’s messy, funny, and occasionally frustrating, but that’s precisely what makes it resonate. This production leans into that ambiguity with sincerity, offering a story that doesn’t wrap itself in a bow so much as it quietly settles into your memory. By the time you step back out into the night, you realize Joseph’s play has done exactly what it set out to do: remind us that growing up, loving people, and surviving the world rarely look neat, but they’re always worth the journey. 

Additional members of the creative team include the following: Susan Marie Rhea & Kurt Boehm (Co-Directors), Hailey Laroe (Lighting Designer), Brandon Cook (Sound Designer), Amy Kellett (Properties & Set Dressing Designer), Jared H. Graham (Production Manager), Mikayla Setzer (Stage Manager), Lily Rehberg (Lead Carpenter), Christopher Gagliardi (Lead Electrics Technician), Benjamin Broderick-Sokol (Assistant Stage Manager), and Pamela Cardenas (Assistant Stage Manager). 

GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES runs from now until September 6, 2026. The play runs approximately 90 minutes with no intermission. 

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