The Gate theatre will present the European premiere of Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries this winter.
Directed by Justin Audibert, the unusual love story will play at the Notting Hill venue from 22 January (press night 24 January) until 16 February, with casting yet to be announced.
Opening in an elementary school nurse’s office, eight-year-old Kayleen can’t stop being sick and Doug’s pedalled his bike off the roof. Over the course of the next 30 years an intensely unusual love story develops that is as delicate and raw as its protagonists. Passionate, infuriating, heartwarming and heartbreaking; their own destructiveness continues to force them apart, only for them to be drawn together again and again, caught in a circle of misadventure and dysfunctional behaviour.
Joseph’s two-hander made its world premiere in America in 2009 to critical acclaim. The playwright then found fame with the multi-award-winning Bengal Tiger At The Baghdad Zoo, which opened on Broadway in 2011 starring Robin Williams.
This European premiere of Gruesome Playground Injuries is presented as part of the Leverhulme Bursary, awarded annually to an emerging director, and will be produced by Paul Jellis in association with the Gate theatre.
Following a six month attachment as Resident Director at the internationally acclaimed National Theatre Studio, 2012’s bursary recipient Audibert, whose other credits include The Tempest, Future Regrets (both Royal Shakespeare Company) and Company Along The Mile (Arcola), and who was recently seen on BBC Two’s Shakespeare Off By Heart, will present the drama as part of the award.