"Gruesome" Truths at Guild Hall in East Hampton

[caption id="attachment_56920" align="alignright" width="523"] Jacob Alden Roa and Julia Masotti.[/caption]

By Annette Hinkle

On occasion, there are people we meet in the course of our lives who are destined to be more than simply friends in the years that follow. It’s not about romance, per se, because this kind of bond is not necessarily that of lovers. This connection relates to something more — a tie so profound that it transcends traditional definitions of both love and friendship.

That’s the kind of relationship explored in “Gruesome Playground Injuries,” Rajiv Joseph’s play, which was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist. Set in a non-descript small town in a recent, yet undefined, era, it follows the lives of two characters, Kayleen and Doug, over the course of their 30-year friendship as they reunite at various intervals in their lives.

The name of the play is inspired by their first meeting in the nurse’s office at their elementary school after they both get hurt on the playground when they are eight years old. From that point on, these two are bound together, no matter how far from one another life’s circumstances take them. In the next three decades, they periodically meet up again in their small town, always due to an injury of one sort or another, which they set out to heal or analyze in the company of the other.

“It’s either self inflicted, accidental, emotional, physical or mental injury,” explains Brian Clemente who directs “Gruesome Playground Injuries” this weekend on the stage of the John Drew Theater at Guild Hall. “Sometimes when we hurt or look back on a painful experience, that's when we know we were most alive. But this is also a dark piece about how people communicate and how love and hate are such kindred spirits.”

“Though it’s a simple play, the human emotions are so complex the way they push and pull,” he adds. “It’s like ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,’ they love each other so hard, they also hurt each other so hard.”

The play is being presented by Ginny Productions, a brand new theatrical production company founded by Mr. Clemente, Jacob Alden Roa, Julia Masotti, and Mary Ragus. All four are alumni of SUNY Geneseo, which is where they met, and this is their inaugural production. Playing the roles of Kayleen and Doug will be Ms. Masotti and Mr. Roa, respectively, while Ms. Ragus is the show’s producer.

Though he grew up in Broadalbin, New York, a small town at the base of the Adirondack Mountains that in many ways resembles the non-specific hometown of the characters in this play, Mr. Clemente is well acquainted with both the East End and Guild Hall.

He spent two years at Stony Brook Southampton earning his MFA in theater direction. Mr. Clemente graduated in 2015, and though he’s living back in Broadalbin now, bringing this play to the East End was something he was inspired to do by Sag Harbor’s Stephen Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton was one of his teachers at Stony Brook Southampton and Mr. Clemente worked as the assistant director on Guild Hall productions that Mr. Hamilton directed, including Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons” in 2015 and Conor McPherson's “The Night Alive” this past spring.

[caption id="attachment_56919" align="alignleft" width="436"] Julia Masotti and Jacob Alden Roa with director Brian Clemente[/caption]

“Gruesome Playground Injuries” will be staged in an intimate black-box style at Guild Hall, with the audience seated on the stage around the actors and the set. It’s a staging technique that Mr. Hamilton has used for several productions at the theater, including “The Night Alive.”

“We’ll have 40 to 45 seats. It will be small and intimate,” explains Mr. Clemente. “Since it’s just the two characters, it’s a very intimate play — almost claustrophobic. It lends itself to that setting.”

Though he has worked closely in the past with Mr. Hamilton, he notes that this production will be a surprise for him.

“Steve hasn’t even read the play yet. So I'm excited he and Emma [Walton Hamilton] can come and see it,” says Mr. Clemente. “I’m on my own on this one.”

Mr. Clemente notes that this play was brought to him by his two actors and college friends, Mr. Roa and Ms. Masotti, and though it appears straight forward in both its staging and it’s message (the play runs 80 minutes with no intermission) he finds there is much to explore below the surface.

“There’s immense love between the two of them, but what becomes of that they never figure out,” says Mr. Clemente. “It’s so real. The great thing about the play is it’s so simple in the fact that they’re in these every day situations, but it’s so complex because human feelings are so complex.”

Life’s circumstances are complex as well, and Mr. Clemente explains that when the two characters are young, they see each other all the time by virtue of the fact they live in the same town. But as the years pass and they both go their separate ways, the audience only gets to see Kayleen and Doug during their injury-laden reunions — be it five, 10 or even 30 years after that first meeting in the nurse’s office.

“In terms of me approaching it as a director, conceptually they’re almost looking back at 30 years of their lives,” explains Mr. Clemente. “Then it’s a question of what happens. What becomes of their relationship? What is next?”

“It’s defining lives through time,” he adds. “How we plan and mark our calendars. If the material of things is time stamped, what would it look like? What would a relationship look like if it was that kind of material?”

“It’s a literal and metaphorical accumulation of stuff. Even with friends, we accumulate ideas, memories and baggage. That’s what I’ve been interested in,” he says. “What I’m trying to do is get people to think about how they communicate. We want to fill the set with dates, calendars, letters, photos, planners — capturing the way people communicate.”

“I’m hoping people get that.”

“Gruesome Playground Injuries” by Rajiv Joseph, directed by Brian Clemente opens Thursday, October 27 at 7 p.m. and continues with shows on Friday and Saturday, October 28 and 29 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, October 30 at 3 p.m. at the John Drew Theater at Guild Hall, 158 Main Street, East Hampton. Tickets are $25 and available at brownpapertickets.com or visit guildhall.org for the link.