In CAST’s newest two-hander, vulnerability, intimacy, and ache are central to this unconventional love(?) story spanning many years
I’ve all the time been fascinated by the proverbial “invisible string.” That’s, individuals inextricably being sure collectively by some larger pressure, which leads them to finally, consistently, discover one another and cross paths all through their lives.
Taylor Swift, in her tune of the identical title, explains it as such: “Time, mystical time / Slicing me open, then therapeutic me tremendous / Had been there clues I didn’t see? / And isn’t it simply so fairly to suppose / All alongside there was some / Invisible string / Tying you to me?”
Equally intriguing is the thought of soulmates, or individuals having a deep and pure affinity, an intense connection.
Whereas neither idea is explicitly talked about within the play “Grotesque Playground Accidents” by Rajiv Joseph, I can’t assist however consider it whereas watching the occasions of Doug and Kayleen’s lives unfold and intertwine.
“Grotesque Playground Accidents” is at present being staged by the Firm of Actors in Streamlined Theatre (CAST), starring the corporate’s long-time collaborators Topper Fabregas and Missy Maramara. Nelsito Gomez directs this highly effective two-hander.
If there’s any easy approach to describe the present, it’s that it’s extremely susceptible (on each the actors’ and the characters’ ends), intimate, and bittersweet. Painfully stunning, too.
The play takes us by a timeline of Doug and Kayleen’s lives, from the very first second they meet—each eight-year-olds on the nurse’s workplace, Kayleen with an upset abdomen, and Doug with a gash on his brow. We see them develop up, undergo all of the teenage angst, battle in younger maturity, lose one another and discover one another once more of their 30s.
All through the play—and their lives—the query “Does it harm?” reverberates. It’s like from that second within the nurse’s workplace they’ve turn out to be sure to one another by means of ache and all kinds of bodily, psychological, and emotional accidents.
From the get-go, you could possibly get a way of simply how intertwined their tales and lives could be. And because the scenes progress, so does the sensation of pressure, a will-they-or-won’t-they, a right-person-wrong-time, pinagtagpo-pero-hindi-tinadhana shadow that follows the 2. Although if something, as they all the time find yourself operating into one another, and even actively in search of out one another, all through these mishaps and tragedies, it’s additionally their unshakable bond of friendship—regardless of some lengthy intervals of no contact—that’s putting.
This staging of “Grotesque Playground Accidents” is as uncooked because the script itself calls for. All scene modifications, together with costumes and prosthetics, are performed on stage, in entrance of the viewers. In idea, one may suppose this could detract from the suspension of disbelief, however right here, it’s proof of the complete piece as an train in vulnerability. And within the succesful fingers of Fabregas and Maramara, as soon as the scenes begin, you’re instantly drawn in, deeply invested many times in Doug’s uncanny propensity for accidents and Kayleen’s struggles together with her psychological well being and unlucky dealings with traumatizing occasions, that you just overlook that simply moments prior, you noticed them pull out garments from cardboard bins on the aspect of the stage or apply make-up on their our bodies to imitate dust and blood.
For all of the ache we witness all through Doug and Kayleen’s lives, what stands out on this story is the bittersweet fickleness of empathy. All of us have our battles, however they solely turn out to be extra bearable after we know somebody understands and can stand by us. However how tragic is it when the one one that we really feel most linked to—the one we belief to grasp us essentially the most—isn’t there for us after we want them? And the way doubly painful, too, after we need to be there for the one we love but can’t maintain area for them? Such is the true grotesque ache that unfolds on this play: the tragedy of discovering somebody, but being unable to be actually open, ends with us pushing them away.
“Grotesque Playground Accidents” runs till Dec. 1 at The Mirror Studios, SJG Constructing, Kalayaan Ave., 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, particular results make-up design by Carlos Siongco, intimacy coordination by Juri Ito.