Gruesome Playground Injuries; Animals Out of Paper; Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo Read online

  Table of Contents

  Praise

  RAJIV JOSEPH

  Title Page

  Dedication

  GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES

  CHARACTERS

  SETTING

  NOTE

  ANIMALS OUT OF PAPER

  CHARACTERS

  TIME

  BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO

  CHARACTERS

  TIME

  SETTING

  NOTE

  Acknowledgements

  Copyright Page

  PRAISE FOR THE PLAYS OF RAJIV JOSEPH

  GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES

  Gruesome Playground Injuries finds a fresh way of expressing human vulnerability, and two individuals’ struggle to understand their need for each other. Joseph takes risks ... that pay off emotionally.”

  —EVERETT EVANS, Houston Chronicle

  “Make[s] us feel life’s brevity and fragility ... there’s something paradoxically life-affirming about the sensitivity with which playwright and players perform this haunting ode to self-destruction.”

  —CHRIS KLIMEK, Washington City Paper

  “A provocative dark comedy.”—Olivia Florez Alvarez, Houston Press

  “Layered with quirky humor and poignant intensity—a crash course in growing up, getting hurt, and the healing power of love.”

  —GWENDOLYN PURDOM, Washingtonian

  ANIMALS OUT OF PAPER

  “Joseph’s observant, pitch-perfect script seems modest at first but is really quite ambitious, dealing ruthlessly ... with the fragility of happiness, the tragedy of impulsiveness and the tenuousness of hope.”

  —ANITA GATES, The New York Times

  “Terrific ... Joseph’s carefully modulated play slowly reveals darker edges to these characters.”—JASON CLARK, Entertainment Weekly

  “[Joseph] begins with a quirky comedy about origami experts and deftly transforms it into a melancholy reminder that close friends make the worst messes. His journey from one extreme to the other ... is surprising and specific, pulling honest insights out of unusual situations.”

  —MARK BLANKENSHIP, Variety

  “Rajiv Joseph is one of the most refreshing new playwrights I’ve ever encountered ... Animals Out of Paper is one of the most satisfying new works I’ve seen all year. Joseph is a fascinating voice in the world of theatre. He’s crafted a substantial play, funny and sad, down-to-earth and unpretentious, with a great deal of meaning ... Joseph’s play is refreshingly genuine, and he’s a playwright to look out for.”

  —DAVID GORDON, nytheatre.com

  BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO

  “No ordinary play. I’m tempted to call it the most original drama written so far about the Iraq war, but why sell the work short? The imagination behind it is way too thrillingly genre-busting to be confined within such a limiting category ... Bengal Tiger marks the breakthrough of a major new playwriting talent.”

  —CHARLES MCNULTY, Los Angeles Times

  “The writing is beautiful ... the pacing is taut and thrilling.”

  —LAURENCE VITTES, The Hollywood Reporter

  “Quite magnificent.”—STEVEN LEIGH MORRIS, LA Weekly

  “Though set amid the throes of the U.S. incursion, it’s less an Iraq War play than a heavily metaphorical musing on life’s purpose in a godless universe.”

  —BOB VERINI, Variety

  RAJIV JOSEPH

  GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES

  ANIMALS OUT OF PAPER

  BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO

  RAJIV JOSEPH’s plays include Huck & Holden, All This Intimacy, and The Leopard and the Fox. He has been the recipient of a grant for Outstanding New American Play from the National Endowment for the Arts for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama in 2010; a Lucille Lortel Award Nomination for Outstanding Play for Animals Out of Paper; the Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting; and a Kesselring Fellowship for emerging dramatists from The National Arts Club.

  In 2009 he received the Whiting Writers Award, given annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and plays.

  He received his BA in creative writing from Miami University and his MFA in playwriting from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, he served for three years in the Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa, and now makes his home in Brooklyn, New York.

  THIS BOOK IS FOR MY AUNTS:

  Anita Notley

  Helenmarie Zachritz

  Joanne Joseph

  Iona Abraham

  Freda Swaminathan

  Rosalind Gauchat

  and

  Colette Gauchat

  GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES

  PRODUCTION HISTORY

  Gruesome Playground Injuries had its world premiere on October 16, 2009, at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas. Rebecca Taichman, Director; Riccardo Hernandez, Scenic Design; Miranda Hoffman, Costume Designer; Christopher Akerlind, Lighting Design; Jill BC DuBoff, Sound Design; and Mark Bly, Dramaturge.

  KAYLEEN: Selma Blair

  DOUG: Brad Fleischer

  Gruesome Playground Injuries had its Off-Broadway premiere in February 2011 at Second Stage Theater. Scott Ellis, Director; Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Christopher Burney, Associate Artistic Director.

  At the time this edition went to press, the play had not yet been cast.

  CHARACTERS

  KAYLEEN: ages eight to thirty-eight

  DOUG: ages eight to thirty-eight

  SETTING

  Various places over the course of thirty years

  NOTE

  All transitions between the scenes should be done by the actors, and their changing of the scene should be leisurely. Costume changes should occur on stage. There is no need to hide any of this work from the audience. We should especially see Doug’s dressing of his wounds, or the application of the necessary makeup that represents his injuries. The lengths of the transitions signify and allow for large passages of time in the lives of the characters. Every scene either jumps forward fifteen years, or backward ten years.

  At times in the dialogue, there are questions but no question mark is written. Absence of a question mark is purposeful. When there is no question mark, the question is delivered in a flat, non-inquiring tone.

  ACT 1

  Scene 1. Eight: Face Split Open

  A nurse’s office in an elementary school. Two beds across from one another.

  Kayleen, eight, lies on one of the beds, not sleeping. She begins to hit the mattress with her hands rhythmically. She stops. She sits up. She stands on the bed, absently. She’s bored. She bounces a little on the bed, and then stops.

  A sound of someone coming from outside. Kayleen drops back down and pretends to sleep.

  Doug, eight, enters. He has a large gauze bandage wrapped and taped across his face. An awful dark stain of blood grows in the middle of the bandage. He seems dazed, but not hurt, not crying.

  He sits on the edge of the other bed and stares at Kayleen. She sits up.

  KAYLEEN: What happened to your face?

  DOUG: I fell.

  KAYLEEN: Why.

  DOUG: I don’t know.

  KAYLEEN: Does it hurt?

  DOUG: A little.

  KAYLEEN: I have a stomachache. Sometimes food makes me sick. My mom says it’s because I have bad thoughts.

  DOUG: Like what?

  KAYLEEN: Bad thoughts.

  DOUG: Like about Dracula?

  KAYLEEN: About stomachs.
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  DOUG: I have bad thoughts about Dracula.

  KAYLEEN: Yeah.

  DOUG: Blood tastes funny. It tastes like fruit.

  KAYLEEN: It does not.

  DOUG: Have you ever cut your face open?

  KAYLEEN: No.

  DOUG: I get cut all the time by accident.

  KAYLEEN: I like the nurse’s office. It is quiet and dark.

  DOUG: I had a stomachache when I went and saw the movies.

  KAYLEEN: I like the movies except when I come out and there is sun.

  DOUG: I had three big Cokes. And I had gummy worms. I like to swallow them like real worms.

  KAYLEEN: Why do you have so much blood?

  DOUG: Because I fell.

  KAYLEEN: Why’d you fall?

  DOUG: I rode my bike off the roof.

  KAYLEEN: What roof?

  DOUG: This roof.

  KAYLEEN: The school roof?

  DOUG: Yeah.

  KAYLEEN: Why.

  DOUG: I was playing Evel Knievel.

  KAYLEEN: What’s Evel Knievel?

  DOUG: He’s a motorcycle guy.

  That’s how I broke my face.

  KAYLEEN: Your face isn’t broken, it’s just cut.

  DOUG: Sister Mary Pat said I broke my face.

  KAYLEEN: Does it hurt?

  DOUG: One time? I went ice skating with my brothers? And I fell on the ice and this girl skated by me and her ice skate cut my eyelid open and I was bleeding out of my eye. I couldn’t see because of all the blood.

  KAYLEEN: Did it hurt?

  DOUG: No, because the eyelid is small even though there is a lot of blood. I have a scar on my eye.

  Girls don’t get scars.

  KAYLEEN: Yes we do.

  DOUG: How come?

  KAYLEEN: If you rode your bike off the roof, then how did you get the bike on the roof?

  DOUG: I climbed up a tree.

  KAYLEEN: You took your bike with you up the tree?

  DOUG: Yeah.

  KAYLEEN: Why.

  DOUG: So I could ride it off the roof.

  KAYLEEN: And then you rode your bike off the roof?

  DOUG: Yeah.

  Beat.

  KAYLEEN: You’re stupid.

  DOUG: I am not.

  KAYLEEN: Yes you are.

  DOUG: Shut up.

  KAYLEEN: You shut up.

  Long silence.

  KAYLEEN: One time, I threw up because I had a stomachache and I threw up so bad that my one eye started to have blood in it.

  DOUG: Why.

  KAYLEEN: Because I threw up so hard and so there was blood in my eye.

  DOUG: Did it hurt?

  KAYLEEN: No. But it was red.

  I have a sensitive stomach. The doctor told me.

  There’s an angel on the roof.

  DOUG: No there’s not.

  KAYLEEN: Yes there is. It’s a statue.

  Are you going to go to the doctor’s?

  DOUG: To get stitches. I like to get stitches.

  KAYLEEN: Why.

  DOUG: It makes your skin feel tight.

  KAYLEEN: Does it hurt?

  DOUG: Yeah.

  Kayleen gets up and wanders around the room.

  KAYLEEN: This room is like a dungeon.

  DOUG: What’s a dungeon?

  KAYLEEN: It’s a room in a castle. It’s where people languish.

  DOUG: Oh.

  KAYLEEN: The rest of the castle is loud and has bright lights and flags and hot oil because of wars. But the dungeon is where people can go to languish and get some peace and quiet.

  DOUG: (sudden; with great pain) Ow!

  KAYLEEN: What?

  DOUG: (normal) My face hurts. I broke it.

  KAYLEEN: You did not. It’s just cut.

  Can I see it?

  DOUG: What?

  KAYLEEN: Can I see the cut on your face?

  DOUG: Why.

  KAYLEEN: Can I?

  Doug slowly takes off his gauze bandage to reveal a huge gash.

  Kayleen looks at it for a long time. Doug looks at Kayleen looking at his wounds.

  KAYLEEN: Does it hurt?

  DOUG: A little.

  Kayleen continues looking at his cut. Doug continues looking at her.

  DOUG: What happened to the blood in your eye?

  KAYLEEN: It went back into my head.

  They continue looking at each other.

  KAYLEEN: Can I touch it?

  DOUG: Why.

  KAYLEEN: Can I?

  DOUG: Okay.

  Kayleen touches Doug’s wound.

  KAYLEEN: Gross.

  DOUG: Your hands are cold.

  KAYLEEN: It’s because I wash them a lot. You should wash your hands. They are grimy.

  DOUG: (showing his hands) I fell. There’s pieces of rock in them.

  Kayleen kneels down and takes his hand and starts to pick pieces of gravel out of his palm. Doug stares at her, transfixed, as she does this.

  DOUG: (quietly) Ow.

  KAYLEEN: Does it hurt?

  DOUG: A little.

  Lights shift. Music fills and Kayleen and Doug prepare for scene two.

  Scene 2. Twenty-three: Eye Blown Out

  Fifteen years later. The kids are twenty-three.

  A hospital room. Doug sits on an examining table. He’s wearing a black suit spattered with blood. He has an enormous bandage across his face, covering specifically his left eye. He looks dazed. His front tooth is missing.

  Kayleen enters. She wears a black dress and heels. She also looks dazed. She has mud all over her feet and lower legs.

  She sees Doug like this for the first time.

  They stare at each other.

  DOUG: Leave me alone.

  KAYLEEN: Dougie.

  What did you do.

  DOUG: The fireworks were awesome. Except for the one that went in my eye.

  (re: the mud on her legs; her state) What happened to you?

  KAYLEEN: I fell asleep at the kitchen table.

  DOUG: What?

  KAYLEEN: I just did. I had some drinks when I got home.

  DOUG: What about that guy. That guy. That guy you live with.

  KAYLEEN: He’s sleeping. He was sleeping when I got home. His name is Brad.

  DOUG: His name is ass-face.

  KAYLEEN: Why’d you do this?

  DOUG: Why do you have mud all over your legs.

  KAYLEEN: Why’d you do this?

  DOUG: I asked you first.

  KAYLEEN: You did not. Stop acting like a child. You’re such a spaz. You shouldn’t be left alone with explosives.

  DOUG: I didn’t want to be alone.

  KAYLEEN: It’s all my fault now.

  The night before I have to bury my father.

  DOUG: What are you even doing here?

  KAYLEEN: Kristen MacConnell called me.

  DOUG: Kristen from high school?

  KAYLEEN: She’s a nurse here. She said you came in and you kept saying my name. So she called me.

  They thought you tried to kill yourself.

  DOUG: Who tries to kill themself with a firework?

  KAYLEEN: I know.

  I told them, no, you’re just a crackhead dumb ass with shit for brains. I told them you’d never commit suicide because you wouldn’t have any scars to show off afterward.

  Anyway, she said you got hurt.

  DOUG: Why’d you come?

  KAYLEEN: I don’t know, Dougie. I was asleep on the kitchen table and Kristen calls me from the freaking hospital.

  Look at you.

  Your tooth and now your eye.

  DOUG: Why do you have mud all over your legs.

  KAYLEEN: I drove halfway, but the car got stuck in the mud.

  DOUG: What do you mean?

  KAYLEEN: I mean, I drove part of the way until the car got stuck in the mud.

  DOUG: The car got stuck in the mud.

  KAYLEEN: Yeah.

  DOUG: What are you even talking about? What mud? Where is there mud between the hospital a
nd your house that you could get stuck in?

  KAYLEEN: Just don’t ... Just shut up.

  There’s mud.

  On the side of the road.

  DOUG: What, you veered off the road? Are you drunk?

  KAYLEEN: No!

  It’s just the windshield is all jacked up because Brad hit a tree last February, and I couldn’t see, and there was this mist or fog or something.

  And I drank a few vodkas. But I mostly slept those off.

  DOUG: So you just left the car.

  KAYLEEN: You know how I get.

  DOUG: How you get?

  KAYLEEN: Fuck you. You know how I get.

  When you get hurt.

  You know.

  DOUG: (matter of fact) Doctor said I’m gonna be blind in one eye.

  KAYLEEN: (quietly) Dougie ...

  She sits near him, covers her eyes briefly with her hands.

  DOUG: (not sad, just observing) It’s gone. The whole thing. But I think it wasn’t just the poke. It was the burn too. The thing kept burning once it had punctured the eye. And so the burn really messed it all up.

  KAYLEEN: You always had problems with that eye.

  DOUG: Yeah.

  KAYLEEN: The chopping wedge.

  DOUG: The wedge.

  KAYLEEN: And that girl who skated on your eye, right? When you were little?

  And then senior year. The Tabasco sauce.

  DOUG: And pinkeye.

  KAYLEEN: Yeah.

  DOUG: I gave you pinkeye that time.

  KAYLEEN: No, you didn’t. I never got it.

  DOUG: I think about that all the time.

  (beat) I think about that all the time. I always think about it.

  KAYLEEN: Yeah, well, you’re a freak.

  I’m fat.

  DOUG: I didn’t want you to come in here.

  KAYLEEN: Yeah, right.

  DOUG: I mean, I’m glad you’re here. For sure. But you have the funeral tomorrow and everything. You should go home. Take a bath. Get some rest.