23 de octubre de 2009

[[GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES]] Selma Blair And Brad Fleischer On Vomit, Gore And The Ick Factor

By Margaret Downing in Stage

22 de octubre de 2009

[[THEATRE]] Gruesome Playground Injuries

Stage Performances






[[GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES]] Review: Taking risks pays off for Gruesome Playground Injuries

By EVERETT EVANS Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

Oct. 22, 2009, 5:41Pm



Whew! Sigh-of-relief time!

We'd heard so much about Rajiv Joseph as a promising new playwright that a more-than-ordinary pressure accompanied Wednesday's opening of Gruesome Playground Injuries at the Alley Theatre.

Happily, the Alley's world premiere of Joseph's newest play — his first presented in Houston — delivers on that much-touted promise. From its opening scene, and increasingly as it progresses, GPI reveals an original voice with a knack for blending quirky humor and unexpected poignancy.

Happily, too, the subtle but sure direction of Rebecca Teichman and the achingly human performances of Selma Blair and Brad Fleischer (they're the entire cast) do Joseph's script proud in a terrific rendition.

We first meet Kayleen (Blair) and Doug (Fleischer) as 8-year-olds in their Catholic school's infirmary. Kayleen languishes on the bed with a tummy ache. We discover that chronic “sensitive stomach” and vomiting (with traces of blood, or does Kayleen just imagine them?) will be a lifelong concern for the lass.

Doug bursts in displaying the bloody wounds of his latest escapade: He just rode his bicycle off the school's roof! We discover that Doug is perpetually “accident prone” or, more accurately, an accident enabler.

Doug and Kayleen's conditions draw them to each other in a prickly attraction — Doug eagerly expressing his fascination, Kayleen denying hers. But with the scene's convincingly kidlike obsessions (“Does it hurt?” “Can I touch it?”) and, especially, as it closes with Kayleen tenderly plucking bits of gravel from Doug's hand, we realize the two have forged a lifelong connection, whether they admit it or not.

GPI (if that sounds like a medical diagnosis, in this case it's entirely appropriate) chronicles Kayleen and Doug's relationship through the next 30 years, jumping back and forth in time. We find them at 23, or 13 or 33. Usually, one or the other is in a hospital or institution, or has lost an eye in a fireworks mishap (guess who?). As adults, their encounters occur after periods of estrangement. Though their emotional bond remains strong, the two are never willing to admit that at the same time. Joseph gradually reveals Kayleen's deeper emotional disturbances, her more secretive equivalent of Doug's overtly self-destructive tendencies.

Doug comes to believe Kayleen has a healing power for him — or could. Kayleen rejects that notion and its responsibility. And when the situation is reversed, she doesn't want Doug rescuing her, either.

At first you think, oh cute! a comedy about two oddball kids growing up through a string of crazy mishaps. Yet with its unaffected humor and deep sympathy, Gruesome Playground Injuries exerts a peculiar power to involve us in Doug and Kayleen's troubled lives. That's enhanced by wordless interludes in which the actors prepare for each new scene, donning whatever makeup is needed to suggest the injuries. At one point, simply pouring liquid becomes a potent ritual expressing anger and loss. (Trust me, you'll get it.)

Gruesome Playground Injuries finds a fresh way of expressing human vulnerability, and two individuals' struggle to understand their need for each other. Joseph takes risks, as in a key scene in which circumstances force one character to do all the talking, in a big confessional monologue that pays off emotionally. The unaffected humor, catching what many will recognize as normal weirdness, keeps the play fun and unpredictable. An adolescent first kiss scene is nothing new, but the one in GPI boasts the funniest payoff I've seen in any play or film.

Blair is excellent in her role, challenging because moody Kayleen so often shields herself with a surly, hostile and dismissive exterior. But Blair conveys her real pain, too, her sarcastic humor and her confused longing for Doug.

The engaging Fleischer proves a natural stage energizer in the live-wire role of impulsive, mercurial, energetic and ever kidlike Doug. The contrast between these two may be what makes the team playing so effective. They're the two-car emotional pile-up on the highway of life that you just can't look away from.

Taichman capitalizes on that factor with her shrewd staging of their interplay, from horsing-around to sullen spells. She also guides them persuasively through that tricky now-we're-kids, now-we're-adults stuff.

Taichman capitalizes on that factor with her shrewd staging of their interplay, from horsing-around to sullen spells. She also guides them persuasively through that tricky now-we're-kids, now-we're-adults stuff.

Accident and injury are the human condition, Doug and Kayleen seem to tell us. My own mere half-century on this planet leads me believe there's a lot of truth in what they (and the playwright) are so vividly expressing in Gruesome Playground Injuries.


GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES

• When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays, through Nov. 15

• Where: Neuhaus Stage, Alley Theatre, 615 Texas

• Tickets: $40-$55; 713-220-5700

21 de octubre de 2009

[[GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES]] Official Web Page


World Premiere – Thought-Provoking, Darkly Funny
Gruesome Playground Injuries
By
Rajiv Joseph
Directed by Rebecca Taichman
Neuhaus Stage
Previews start October 16, 2009
Opens October 21, 2009
Ends November 15, 2009


Gruesome Playground Injuries charts two lives, using scars, injuries and calamity as the mile markers. An imaginative tour de force, the play explores why people hurt themselves to gain another’s love, and the cumulative effect of such damage, of such demands. Director Rebecca Taichman will make her Alley debut. Recommended for mature audiences. Strong language, profanity, violence.


http://www.alleytheatre.org/alley/Default_EN.asp

8 de octubre de 2009

[[PROJECTS]] Selma in a play titled “Gruesome Playground Injuries”

Blair and Fleischer Set for Premiere of Gruesome Playground Injuries

By Adam Hetrick
08 Oct 2009

Selma Blair and Brad Fleischer will co-star in the world premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries at the Alley Theatre in Houston.

Advertisement
Rebecca Taichman, who directed The Scene Off-Broadway at Second Stage, will helm the premiere that runs Oct. 16 through Nov. 15 on the Neuhaus Stage. The production is the first play presented as part of the Alley's New Play Initiative.

Blair ("Hellboy," "Legally Blonde," "Kath & Kim") will portray Kayleen opposite Brad Fleischer (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Coram Boy, Streamers) as Doug in the two-hander.

According to the Alley, "Gruesome Playground Injuries charts two lives, using scars, injuries and calamity as the mile markers. An imaginative tour de force the play explores why people hurt themselves to gain another's love, and the cumulative effect of such damage, of such demands."

Designing the production are Riccardo Hernandez (scenic design), Miranda Hoffman (costume design), Christopher Akerlind (lighting design), Jill BC DuBoff (sound design) and Mark Bly (dramaturg).

Blair's extensive screen credits also include "Feast of Love," "The Big Empty," "The Poker House," "In Good Company," "A Dirty Shame," " Storytelling" and "Cruel Intentions." She will appear in the forthcoming film "Columbus Circle."

Fleischer has appeared on stage in Pig Farm at South Coast Rep and Paris Commune at the La Jolla Playhouse. On screen he has appeared in "The Good Shepherd," "Jericho," "The Unit," "Prison Break" and "Over There."

Playwright Rajiv Joseph has penned Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, which was produced by Center Theatre Group and directed by Tony nominee Moisés Kaufman last spring. His plays also include Animals Out of Paper, The Leopard and the Fox, Huck & Holden and All This Intimacy. He is the recipient of the 2009 Paula Vogel Award.

Tickets are available by visiting AlleyTheatre. The Alley Theatre is located at 615 Texas Avenue in Houston, TX.

3 de octubre de 2009

[[PROJECTS]] Selma in a play titled “Gruesome Playground Injuries”

Selma will be in a play called “Gruesome Playground Injuries”, which will be going on in Houston, TX. The show begins performances Friday, October 16 and runs through Sunday, November 15 on the Neuhaus Stage at the Alley Theatre.

The world premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo) Gruesome Playground Injuries features Selma Blair (Hellboy, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, Storytelling, Legally Blonde, NBC’s Kath & Kim) playing Kayleen and Brad Fleischer (Center Theatre Group’s premiere of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Broadway’s Coram Boy, Off Broadway’s Streamers) playing Doug. Gruesome Playground Injuries charts two lives, using scars, injuries and calamity as the mile markers. An imaginative tour de force the play explores why people hurt themselves to gain another’s love, and the cumulative effect of such damage, of such demands. Recommended for adult audiences. Strong language, profanity and violence.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets to Gruesome Playground Injuries are $21 Cheap Thrills pricing, for the October 17 matinee performance. Tickets for other performances are $40 – $55. All tickets to Gruesome Playground Injuries are available for purchase at www.alleytheatre.org, at the Alley Theatre Box Office, 615 Texas Avenue, or by calling 713.220.5700. Groups of 10 or more can receive special concierge services and select discounts by calling 713.315.3346. The added convenience of reservations by phone or Internet is available for a nominal fee. Tickets purchased in person at the Alley Theatre Box Office have a $1 facility fee.