Kara Young and Nicholas Braun were so much fun to watch in this latest production of Rajiv Joseph’s peculiar play that it hurt. As Kayleen and Doug, they portray friends who are consistently ill or injured over a span of thirty years, from age eight to 38. “Gruesome Playground Injuries,” like several other Joseph plays, tries to make pain funny. When Doug enters a scene in a wheelchair, the audience is meant to laugh, and we did; a queasy accomplishment.

The eight scenes in the play have the feel of vignettes, each given a title projected onto the stage. “Eight: Face Split Open” takes place in the nurse’s office of their parochial school when they are both eight years old; Kayleen is there because of a stomach ache, Doug because he rode his bicycle off the school roof. “Twenty-Three: Eye Blown Out By Firework” takes place when they are now both 23 at a hospital room, where Kayleen has rushed sick with worry to visit Doug after another one of Doug’s misadventures. The settings aren’t just medical – there are scenes in Kayleen’s bedroom, in a skating rink, in a funeral parlor — but Arnulfo Maldonado’s set is basically just two beds. This is a fitting reflection of the lack of variety in the dynamic between the two characters.

But Braun and Young supply the variety. This is not just because he is 6’7 and she is 5’2; or that Young is a four-time Tony nominee/ two-time winner (for Purpose and Purlie Victorious) and Braun, best known as the inept Cousin Greg in the “Succession” HBO series, is making his professional stage debut. The two actors must perform in quick succession and at different ages, relying primarily on a shift in body language, and they do so adeptly. Young in particular is a marvel, the way in the first scene, wearing a parochial school uniform, she squirms and twists her hair, and sticks her chest out awkwardly like a pigeon, an eight-year-old’s mix of bold and shy as she asks Doug whether his face hurts; whether he can take off his bandages so she can see; whether she can touch the wound — and then in the second scene she has become a young woman wearing a black dress who moves with subtle grace and sophistication. The quick physical transitions would be challenging enough under any circumstances, but the chronology of the scenes is out of order – so they’re eight years old in one scene, 23 in the next, 13 in the third, 28 in the fourth. And they must spend the time in-between scenes rearranging the beds into a different formation, changing into Sarah Laux’s age-specific costumes, washing off the blood from the previous scene,  and adding the wounds and bandages for the next one — all in view of the audience.

The challenge makes the production come off more like an acting exercise than a coherent drama. This, somewhat ironically, may be the precise reason why Joseph’s play is still being widely performed sixteen years after he wrote it. “Gruesome Playground Injuries” was first produced in New York a couple of months before his higher-profile play, “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” debuted on Broadway in 2011, starring Robin Williams. But out of Joseph’s 17 plays (the vast majority written since then), it’s “Gruesome” that remains his most popular, reportedly a staple in acting schools and regional theaters.

This makes practical sense: The two characters and the short individual vignettes make it ideal for the scene work done in acting class; the minimal cost for cast and sets attracts theaters that are on a tight budget.

Joseph’s skill at dialogue and his sustained subtext (tease) about the ups and downs of their relationship — with the audience wondering whether this will turn romantic — help make the play a good showcase for the actors.

But what the play adds up to eludes me. 

I was so puzzled about Joseph’s use of gore and violence for comedy – not just in “Gruesome” but “Bengal” and “Guards at the Taj” and “Archduke,” (a revival of which is also currently running Off-Broadway) – that I asked that question in a Google search: “Why does Rajiv Joseph use violence for his comedy?” One of the top results was an article in HowlRound entitled “Violence on Stage: Healing or Titillating?” that I myself wrote in 2015 (and forgot about.)

“Perhaps Joseph is exploring some deep themes,” I wrote then, specifically about one of several then-current examples, “Guards at the Taj,” which climaxes with the two characters in a pool of blood having chopped off the hands of all 20,000 artisans who built the Taj Mahal. That play may be meant to suggest that beauty and brutality are often paired. But I found it hard to accept such an interpretation for two reasons: “First, this never happened; it’s a fabrication not based on history. Second, it doesn’t even feel real; it’s so over-the-top as to approach cartoonish.”

 Perhaps some see “Gruesome Playground Injuries” as meant to suggest that pain and love are often intertwined,  and that physical wounds and physical illnesses are metaphors for internal traumas, or manifestations of emotions. But my reaction is much the same as to his other play ten years ago: I’m kept from seeing such depth in “Gruesome Playground Injuries” because, as skilled as the performers are, the relationship between the two characters doesn’t feel real.

Gruesome Playground Injuries
Lucille Lortel Theater through December 28
Running time: 90 minutes no intermission
Tickets: $50 – $200
Written by Rajiv Joseph
Directed by Neil Pepe
Scenic design by Arnulfo Maldonado, costume design by Sarah Laux, lighting design by Japhy Weideman, sound design and original music by David Van Tieghem, makeup design by Brian Strumwasser
Cast: Nicholas Braun, Kara Young