GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES • The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis

Doug and Kayleen meet in the nurse’s office at school when they’re eight years old. He’s busted up his face after riding his bike off the school roof, and she’s got stomach problems. There’s a curious examination of each other’s wounds, external and internal, carried out with all of the contrary ardor and aversion of children, and a bond is formed. The play unfolds in non-chronological scenes spanning their decades-long friendship as they drift apart, reconnect, and attempt to mend the other’s hurts.

Gruesome Playground Injuries marks the return of the Steve Woolf Studio Series, and the intimate Strauss Black Box Theatre at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center is a perfect spot for it. Playwright Rajiv Joseph balances humor and poignancy during his sequence of vignettes, but we don’t end up learning a ton about the hapless protagonists during its 80-minute exploration of shared damages. Luckily, the direction and performances keep the play from wearing out its welcome.

EQUUS • HotCity Theatre

Giddyup psychodrama!

If anyone has any doubts about the variety and quality of theatre we have here in the Lou, they should make tracks to the Kranzberg Arts Center to check out HotCity Theatre's production of EQUUS.  I saw this last night with a couple of friends and I.  Loved.  It.

The play, written in 1973 by Peter Shaffer, was recently revived in NYC with Harry Pott… I mean Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths.  Here in St. Louis, it's admirably directed by Doug Finlayson.  The play centers on Alan Strang, a young English stable boy who has blinded six horses with a metal spike, and his psychiatrist Martin Dysart, who is talked into taking him on as a patient.  Buckle up, right?

What would drive a 17 year old boy to commit such a violent act against animals he loved -- animals he'd come to worship as deities?  As Dysart tries to find the answer to this question, and the details of Alan's life are revealed in a series of therapy sessions and flashbacks, we learn about both characters.  We learn about Alan, and how apparently, living with a mother who's a religious zealot and a father who's a restrained atheist can really mess with your head.  And we learn about Dr. Dysart, the man trying to figure him out.  In the process of dissecting his patient, slowly winning his trust, Dysart uncovers not only how the combination of societal, religious and sexual influences (with a little shame thrown in) have affected the mind of this kid, but the doctor also comes to realize that "curing" him would be in a sense, for him, breaking Alan's spirit -- a spirit and passion the doctor feels he has never known.  Does "normal and well-adjusted" = "happy and fulfilled"?  It's kinda heavy, dude.