We have all had injuries in our lives that have drastically shaped our memories of the moments surrounding them. Those who were with us, what we were wearing, what we were feeling and often, how our lives changed after that moment. Minor injuries are reminders of our mortality, little dots on the map of our physical existence in these strange decaying vessels fate has placed us in.

Written by much buzzed about playwright Rajiv Joseph and premiering in 2009 (the same year as his Pulitzer Prize-nominated Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, which just finished an accomplished run at The Long Beach Playhouse), Gruesome Playground Injuries explores the lives of two people, Doug and Kayleen, as they form a strange and indefinable bond that is held together by a long string of injuries of varying consequences.

Presented as a memory play with the scenes of 30 odd years transpiring non-chronologically, Gruesome Playground Injuries is a bit confounding as a piece of theater. It never quite adds up to the sums of its parts and can sometimes seem obvious or even far reaching. But, within its unusual structure, it strikes an undeniable nerve. I think this is especially true for millennials who have grown up in an era where gore, self mutilation and BDSM have become far less taboo in the public vernacular.

Although there is a lack of overarching dramatic structure in the play beyond that of wondering if these two characters will ever end up together; it is hard not to be drawn to Doug and Kayleen. Their reality exists somewhere just next to our own and inhabiting their strange, wounded little world is sort of like being emotionally involved in a perpetual, metaphorical car crash. Instead of the overarching drama, it is in watching these two, very damaged people learn how to communicate with each other that our attention is kept.

Oh, and did I mention that it’s funny?

It is.

Very.

I laughed out loud several times. Keep this in mind as a grain of sugar when you read any descriptors that might lead you to believe that this play is terminally bleak.

The Garage Theatre’s production offers up a brave and sometimes visionary version of this uneven play, grounded by a smart concept, strong direction and two really excellent performances.

Jasper Oliver plays Doug, a man who is not just accident-prone but likely needs physical pain in order to feel alive. There is also a desperate need to be noticed and comforted that he doesn’t know how to express without doing physical harm to himself. His love for Kayleen is made clear fairly early on in their relationship, but his inability to let Kayleen just come to him and not shove his wounds in her face proves to be a constant conflict. That said, it’s the only way he can always reliably get her attention.

Oliver’s performance is passionate and at times stomach-churning, in a good way. He has a mastery of physicality and creates a series of believable ailments throughout. Likewise, Doug’s puppy-dog childishness and eagerness to be recognized is beautifully developed by Oliver over the course of his performance. He manages to show us these traits in Doug early on and to keep them consistent as his character changes and grows older. If it wasn’t for a mind blowing performance from his co-star, you wouldn’t be able to take your eyes off of him.

Unfortunately for Oliver, but very fortunate for this production, Carolina Montenegro’s performance as Kayleen nearly steals the show. I’d seen Montenegro appear in a production of By the Bog of Cats last year at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) and her performance blew my mind. With the addition of Playground Injuries to her resume, I can say with confidence she is the most engaging female actress in Long Beach under the age of 30.

Conveying Kayleen’s long and troubled path from self-inflicted harm toward one of possible self-realization, Montenegro’s performance is outstanding. Besides not knowing quite what to do with the play’s weakest scene (which takes place at Kayleen’s rehab facility years after her attempted suicide), Montenegro is almost exhaustingly engaged and convincing in her character’s explorations. She has a striking tactile awareness and is able to let simple props, physical gestures and the weight of physical touch resonate in a sometimes shockingly visceral way. The scene in which she comes to visit Doug at the hospital while he is in a coma, delivering all of her dialogue to his unresponsive body is the best bit of acting I’ve seen in town this year. It is worth the price of admission on its own.

The greatest challenge of making this particular piece of theater work is choosing gifted actors. Turner Munch, the play’s director, has had great success on those grounds. It is largely because of those actors that this production of Joseph’s play is one worth seeing. Yet while Munch guides his two person cast with a skilled and nuanced hand, he also successfully manages to create a world where memory and time can flow effortlessly into one another. While the actors are responsible for much of this, repeating and shifting through dialogue and ritualized gesture in the smartly conceived scene transitions; they are aided with an ingenious bit of conceptual scenic design.

Lining the entire lip of the stage are several items that are intrinsically tied to the action of the play. There are tins, packs of cigarettes, fireworks, a cane, a few razors, an eye patch, and various bandages, all of which are assembled sporadically like old items in a dark attic of the mind. At each scene’s transition, the foot of the stage and all its varying objects light up as the cast exchanges previously used items for new ones and the play moves forward or backward in time.

Beyond being a theatrically engaging tactic, it was a resourceful and pleasing aesthetic choice. This recurring ritual keeps the audience guessing as to which items will be used next and how. Some items are reused and some are never used. A game of Clue without a winner.

Cat Elrod’s costumes and makeup creatively allow the actors to apply and strip off various pieces to great effect, heightening the theatricality of this play’s scene transitions.

Likewise, Robert Edward’s lighting provides just enough theatrical flair and added focus as the play jumps ahead and back to various years and locales.

Sound designer Matari 2600 really takes the creative team cake with the sound design, creating a fluid collage of music and sounds that are both contemporary and timeless. In fact, the soundscapes used in this production are likely the strongest use of music I’ve yet to experience in a non-musical Garage Theatre production.

While I wish I could say all of these elements fuse together seamlessly, there is one glaring element that proved to be more aesthetically pleasing than helpful and that is Alexandra Giron’s scenic design.

The hanging Edison Light Bulbs and 1920s-style rolling hospital bed that gets used in various incarnations over the course of the play are cool to look at but stylistically out of place, at least in this production.

Any production of Playground Injuries has the challenge of deciding if Doug and Kayleen’s world exists inside or outside of time. By mixing in über theatrical elements, indicators of actual time and some archaic, old-timey contraptions, this production confuses whatever it’s trying to say about time and memory. This lack of focus holds The Garage’s production back from becoming the thoroughly satisfying theatrical experience to which it often gets so close. 

That said, Joseph’s play was a cabinet of curiosities before it ever got to Long Beach. Besides the aforementioned conflicting choices, The Garage’s production gives us a plethora of reasons to give these open wounds a closer look.