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I’ve always been fascinated by the proverbial “invisible string.” That is, people inextricably being bound together by some higher force, which leads them to eventually, constantly, find each other and cross paths throughout their lives. 

Taylor Swift, in her song of the same title, explains it as such: “Time, mystical time / Cutting me open, then healing me fine / Were there clues I didn’t see? / And isn’t it just so pretty to think / All along there was some / Invisible string / Tying you to me?”

Equally intriguing is the idea of soulmates, or people having a deep and natural affinity, an intense connection.

While neither concept is explicitly mentioned in the play “Gruesome Playground Injuries” by Rajiv Joseph, I can’t help but think of it while watching the events of Doug and Kayleen’s lives unfold and intertwine. 

“Gruesome Playground Injuries” is currently being staged by the Company of Actors in Streamlined Theatre (CAST), starring the company’s long-time collaborators Topper Fabregas and Missy Maramara. Nelsito Gomez directs this powerful two-hander.

If there’s any simple way to describe the show, it is that it’s incredibly vulnerable (on both the actors’ and the characters’ ends), intimate, and bittersweet. Painfully beautiful, too.

The play takes us through a timeline of Doug and Kayleen’s lives, from the very first moment they meet—both eight-year-olds at the nurse’s office, Kayleen with an upset stomach, and Doug with a gash on his forehead. We see them grow up, go through all the teenage angst, struggle in young adulthood, lose each other and find each other again in their 30s.

Throughout the play—and their lives—the question “Does it hurt?” reverberates. It’s like from that moment in the nurse’s office they’ve become bound to each other by way of pain and all sorts of physical, mental, and emotional injuries. From the get-go, you could get a sense of just how intertwined their stories and lives would be. And as the scenes progress, so does the feeling of tension, a will-they-or-won’t-they, a right-person-wrong-time, pinagtagpo-pero-hindi-tinadhana shadow that follows the two.  Though if anything, as they always end up running into each other, or even actively seeking out each other, throughout these mishaps and tragedies, it’s also their unshakable bond of friendship—despite some long intervals of no contact—that’s striking.

This staging of “Gruesome Playground Injuries” is as raw as the script itself demands. All scene changes, including costumes and prosthetics, are done on stage, in front of the audience. In concept, one might think this would detract from the suspension of disbelief, but here, it is proof of the entire piece as an exercise in vulnerability. And in the capable hands of Fabregas and Maramara, once the scenes start, you’re immediately drawn in, deeply invested again and again in Doug’s uncanny propensity for accidents and Kayleen’s struggles with her mental health and unfortunate dealings with traumatizing events, that you forget that just moments prior, you saw them pull out clothes from cardboard boxes on the side of the stage or apply makeup on their bodies to mimic dirt and blood.

For all the pain we witness throughout Doug and Kayleen’s lives, what stands out in this story is the bittersweet fickleness of empathy. We all have our battles, but they only become more bearable when we know someone understands and will stand by us. But how tragic is it when the one person who we feel most connected to—the one we trust to understand us the most—isn’t there for us when we need them? And how doubly painful, too, when we want to be there for the one we love yet can’t hold space for them? Such is the true gruesome pain that unfolds in this play: the tragedy of finding someone, yet being unable to be truly open, ends with us pushing them away.

“Gruesome Playground Injuries” runs until Dec. 1 at The Mirror Studios, SJG Building, Kalayaan Ave.lucky cola, Makati. Written by Rajiv Joseph. Directed by Nelsito Gomez. Starring Topper Fabregas as Doug and Missy Maramara as Kayleen. Set design by Loy Arcenas, costume design by Paul Adrian Martinez, lighting design by Miyo Sta. Maria, special effects makeup design by Carlos Siongco, intimacy coordination by Juri Ito.

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