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You’ve not yet seen a love story quite like this. Stone’s Throw Productions’ Gruesome Playground Injuries follows the decades-spanning relationship of an accident-prone daredevil and a corrosive masochist who navigate friendship, love, and the wounds created in between.

Doug and Kayleen first meet in the nurse’s office at the age of eight: Doug has ridden his bike off the roof while Kayleen can’t stop throwing up. Over the course of the next 30 years, their lives continue to intersect at the most bizarre intervals and places, leading the two childhood friends to compare scars and the physical calamities that keep drawing them together.

Rajiv Joseph is an up-and-coming playwright gaining considerable attention. His play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo was a 2010 Pulitzer Finalist and recently played on Broadway featuring Robin Williams. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the recent film Draft Day starring Clint Eastwood released this past April.

“This wondrous strange two-hander finds as much humor as horror in the play’s bizarre events.” – Variety

Chelsea Haberlin is a perfect fit to direct Joseph’s dark comedy after receiving a Jessie nomination for last year’s Mojo, winning the Ray Michal directing award, and having recently finished a wildly successful run of Tracy Letts’ black comedy Killer Joe.

“I am thrilled to be tackling this beautiful, challenging and provocative play with these two exceptional young actors,” says Haberlin.

“The duality of love and brutality in this script is heartbreaking and it is a privilege to be directing the Vancouver premiere. Bring your Kleenex and a helmet.”

Pippa Johnstone and Kenton Klassen are both UBC BFA Acting grads who appeared opposite each other as Wallis and Edward in last year’s hit production of The Duchess: a.k.a. Wallis Simpson directed by Sarah Rodgers. They are both company apprentices at Pacific Theatre this season and are producing and performing in Gruesome Playground Injuries as their final apprenticeship project.

Gruesome Playground Injuries

Dates: July 3 to 12; Wednesday to Saturday, 8 pm; Pay-what-you-can preview, July 2, 8 pm
Venue: Pacific Theatre, 1440 West 12th Avenue at Hemlock, Vancouver
Tickets: $15, available online and via phoning 604.731.5518