Gruesome Playground Injuries

The eight brief scenes in Rajiv Joseph's play—snapshots of Doug (a sinewy Pablo Schreiber) and Kayleen (a bland Jennifer Carpenter) from ages eight to 38—focus diligently on self-inflicted wounds. The characters' shared history of cutting, bruising and otherwise maiming their bodies is a by-product of arrested development. The skilled Joseph can spin tight dialogue and includes some grace notes of humor, but his theatrical sense and view of humanity seem distressingly small.—David Cote