DNA: School Edition (Oberon Modern Plays)

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By the bridge, last week... A fat Caucasian male, five-nine say, with thinning hair and a postman's uniform. Sad eyes... Softly spoken. And when Phil becomes leader, he tries to deflect the blame altogether by blaming an imaginary pervert.' Scene 1: Mark and Jan discuss that someone is ‘dead’ and this throws the audience into the middle of the action. Scene 3: The police have found a man that fits the description of the man that Phil concocted because Cathy used her ‘initiative’ to find a man that matched the description. The plan has gone wrong. Brian is refusing to go into the police station to identify the man who is being framed. Phil threatens him with being taken up to the grille if he doesn’t go. Brian goes. Oh great! Now you're talking to Cathy?! Like, I'm not, I'm not, because you don't like what I say? And now it's Cathy?!

Then we plant one of Adams jumpers, with the D.N.A of a random stranger on it near the scene of the crime, and we put them off our scent.

Finally, Kelly uses his brightest character to get us to contemplate "what is the nature of being human?" It's clear that the gang has its own set of rules, which override those of the world outside. Going outside the gangs ranks, is a no-no.'

Who matches our made up description and there's even the posties DNA on the jumper. I mean, that’s impossible! Surely?!He gets us to frame an innocent person, gets someone to identify the body and kill Adam when he turns up alive.

Scene 4: Leah speaks about bonobos being our nearest relatives. ‘Chimps are evil. They murder each other…they kill and sometimes torture each other to find a better position within the social structure’ (p26). This could be seen as the author’s voice coming through about how he feels about the nature of bullies. A Chimp will find itself on the outside of a group and before he knows it he's been hounded to death by the others. Sometimes for months! Chimps are evil... they murder each other. Did you know that? They kill and torture each other to find a better position within the social structure. It appears Cathy has shown initiative. She's managed to find a fat balding postman with bad teeth and rubbed to rub his DNA on the jumper.' Scene 3: Adam is alive and has been living in a hedge. He has survived by living off dead animals. He has clearly sustained a head injury. Phil instructs Jan, Mark and Lou to leave and not say anything. He shows Cathy how to kill Adam by tying a plastic bag around Brian’s head (who is by not on medication and is clearly losing his mind). Leah begs him not to do this.Chris Megson is Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has taught and published widely in the field of modern drama, and is editor of The Methuen Drama Book of Naturalist Plays. Other works include: Get Real: Documentary Theatre Past and Present (with Alison Forsyth, 2011), and Modern British Playwriting: The 70s: Voices, Documents, New Interpretations (2012).

Dennis Kelly 's plays include Debris, Osama the Hero, After the End, Love and Money, Taking Care of Baby, DNA, The Gods Weep, Orphans, The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas and Girls and Boys. For television he created/cocreated Pulling, Utopia and The Third Day. He also wrote the book for Matilda the Musical. The new GCSE Drama examination for Edexcel asks a lot of students. It includes a written examination, as part of which the students are asked to approach a script (from a selection provided by Edexcel) and answer questions linked to acting, directing and designing. Within the short time period they must also complete a live evaluation. This scheme of work will focus on the scripted element of the exam. In the exam, students are given an extract from the play and must answer five questions on it, each linked to different elements. They are not allowed to take in an annotated text, which any real director would have. This is hard work, and means that the students need not only to know how they would direct the whole play in depth, but that they must know it off by heart. It's too much for some. John Tate leaves the group. And Brian made to act against his moral instincts, completely loses his sanity.' I sometimes think you're not human. I sometimes think I wonder, what would you do if I killed myself right here in front of you? What would you do? What would you do Phil?! I kind of wonder if people have always behaved like this? No matter what the circumstance, you know the gang will defend itself. Not just from outsiders, but from itself. Weak leaders are seen as threats. And they constantly have to be on the lookout for challenges. Defiantly a victim of that.A group of teenagers do something bad, really bad, then panic and cover the whole thing up. But when they find that their cover-up unites them and brings harmony to their once fractious lives, where is the incentive to put things right. Go and eat the earth somewhere? Shall we eat the earth? I wonder what the earth tastes like? What do you think? Do you think it tastes earthy? What you thinking? No! Don't tell me... Sorry! that's a stupid, that’s such a stupid... You can tell me you know? You can talk to me? Scene 1: The audience learn that someone is ‘not going’…this is a reference to Brian not going to the police station When the authorities believe the lie, Phil is embraced as leader of the group, and everything seems to settle down. The dirty secret appears to bring them all closer.'