Growing up is hard to do

WILL theatre company Pangdemonium deliver a critical hat-trick this year? After two solid productions this year that received rave reviews - namely The Rabbithole and Next To Normal - the producers are back with another play that may again attest to the company's production and directorial prowess.

The difference is that, unlike those previous productions, the new Gruesome Playground Injuries is set to be a more intimate experience with just two actors performing in a small studio space - a marked departure from the large and ambitious productions Pangdemonium is used to staging. "It's far removed from what we usually do," notes director Tracie Pang. "But we love the script and we hope our audiences will take to it too."

Gruesome Playground Injuries centres on a boy (Alan Wong) and a girl (Seong Hui Xuan) who meet each other at age eight in a school clinic. Sharing a fascination for each other's injuries, they become instant pals. Over the next 30 years, the two will meet again in various critical settings - a mental institution, a funeral parlour and various hospital rooms - to share details of their lives and their injuries. And though he is attracted to her and wants to be her lover, she resists him for various reasons.