Gruesome Playground Injuries
Playwright: Rajiv Joseph
Director: Brea Macey
Tap Gallery , Surry Hills
22 April – 3 May, 2026
Hold on tight! Darya Miroshnikova and Chris Stamoulos will take your breath away and only occasionally give it back.
The Tap Gallery is welcoming Gruesome Playground Injuries until 3 May, and it is the perfect space for this play by Rajiv Joseph. All the action takes place in a small, intimate and intimidating white room, where the background noises immediately make you feel like you are in the waiting room of a medical facility. You then find yourself caught on a rollercoaster of flashes going back and forth, where physical injuries are only the tip of the iceberg.
The play unfolds as a series of eight non-linear vignettes in which the two characters, Kayleen and Doug, meet at different painful moments in their lives, from adolescence to almost forty. Transitions between these scenes are handled by repositioning a bed and adjusting a handful of props.
Most compelling, however, is Doug’s transformation, whose costume and makeup changes take place in full view of the audience. This choice adds a layer of theatrical intimacy focusing on two wounded souls who instinctively keep coming back to one another despite the scars of the past, rather than on an impressive set.
Doug is an untameable feline who constantly defies the laws of gravity and tirelessly tries to tame Kayleen. Chris Stamoulos shifts masterfully from a too-playful leopard cub to a tiger to a wiser lion. Kayleen, for her part, appears more like a wary female cat, with sharp, slashing claws. The scene midway through the play, in which Kayleen lets Doug curl up around her after she has had a sexual encounter that might have been consensual at another time, is beautifully tender. However, it is only a blink of an eye that propels them into adulthood, where everything will be even more destructive.
If I mention that among Doug’s final words are “I’m good”, and that Kayleen’s last are “The sky was starting to be blue”, would you then think it is a happy ending? Nothing could be less certain, but the actors’ performances are well worth the emotional intensity, and the judiciously chosen soundtrack should help slow your racing heartbeat.
