Gruesome Playground Injuries


What a title. I have to admit that I do not know what the show is about when I bought the tickets. We were out having brunch with some friends when we were wondering what we can do for the afternoon. I remembered that Pangdemonium has a show on, and that it is a play. That was all it take for us to decide to hop to the Esplanade to catch the play. 

Right before the show, I quickly read up the synopsis from the website, and here's what it says.
LOVE HURTS. And in Gruesome Playground Injuries Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph has crafted "a perfect dissection of contemporary love-lost relationships." (Idaho Statesman), and one of the most startlingly original and screwed-up love stories of modern times. 
We follow Kayleen (Seong Hui Xuan - Pangdemonium's Rabbit Hole) and Doug (Alan Wong - The MTV Show) from age 8 to 38, leaping back and forth over the course of their lives in a deliriously disjointed time-continuum. Doug is full of life and absurdly "accident-prone"; while Kayleen hates her life and hides a painful secret. And for each of them the physical wounds they endure turn into emotional and psychological scars that never truly heal, and come to define who they are. As they careen and collide into and out of each other's lives, they become damaged goods for life, but are forever bonded together by bloodstains, broken bones and bandages.

 While examining two tortured lost-soul-mates in search of each other, we discover a bittersweet, savagely funny and achingly romantic love story of the most bizarre and surprisingly poignant kind. "Layered with quirky humor and poignant intensity - a crash course in growing up, getting hurt and the healing power of love" (The Washingtonian), Gruesome Playground Injuries is hilarious, haunting and heartbreaking.
Well, the reviews are spot on. The play is on a simple stage, and it starts to engage you right from the moment you stepped inside the theatre. It goes back and forth, telling the story at different times of their lives. You try to piece the story together, to try to understand what happened to these two tortured souls between those times. You laugh with them, you cry with them, and you cheer them on hoping that everything will turn out right. The play is superbly executed by the two actors, and as always, Pangdemonium's productions have not disappointed me.


To all of you in Singapore who love a good theatre production, do support Pangdemonium. It is a local theatre company created by local artiste Adrian Pang, with his wife Tracie Pang, and it brings some of the best local actors on stage with affordable ticket prices. Do catch the beautiful and messy Gruesome Playground Injuries, and check out their 2014 productions. Remember to book a date with them! 

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