DNA: Plot and Characters

DNA by Dennis Kelly

For Component 3, Section A, you study DNA, a 2007 play by Dennis Kelly. A group of teenagers bully a boy, believe they have killed him, and cover it up. To answer the questions you need the plot, the characters, the themes and the original staging context.

Four sections, three places

The play is built in four sections, moving between three settings: a street, a field and a wood. Four words describe how it is put together:

The plot in order

Put the main events of DNA in the order they happen.

• The gang bullies Adam, who falls and is presumed dead
• Phil invents a cover story about a fictional man
• The gang follows the plan and grows more confident
• Adam is discovered alive, living in the woods
• Phil arranges to remove the threat for good

Match each character to their nature

Who leads the cover-up?

Which character is the silent mastermind who devises the plan to cover up what happened?

• Phil
• Leah
• John Tate
• Brian

The wider gang

Other members matter too: - John Tate: the early leader, obsessed with control, who later disappears. - Adam: the bullied boy at the centre of events. - Danny: dreams of becoming a dentist and fears for his future. - Richard: takes over as leader later in the play.

Match each character to their role

The themes

Select the TWO central themes of DNA.

• Gangs, belonging and peer pressure
• Bullying and cruelty
• The joys of space travel
• Medieval kingship and battles

One versus many

The play keeps returning to a moral question about individual versus collective responsibility: is it right to sacrifice one person for the good of the many? Kelly has said this is, for him, the central question of the play. The gang behaves in ways no single member might alone.

Direct a section

You are directing DNA for a Section A answer. Make three choices that serve the play as Kelly wrote it.

• You are staging the opening moments of a section. What does the audience meet first?
• A character delivers a long monologue to Phil. What is your Phil doing?
• John Tate has disappeared from the play. Who do you now give the group's authority to?

How it was first staged

DNA was first performed in 2008 at the National Theatre in London, commissioned for the NT Connections project for young performers. It is staged end-on with video projection and a minimal set. Notably, though written in 2007, it features no mobile phones. You must reference this context in Section A.

Put the context to work

Write two or three sentences you could use in a Section A answer that reference the original staging of DNA and what it means for how the play is performed.

• Name where and when it was first performed, and what it was commissioned for
• Say something concrete about how it was staged: end-on, minimal set, video projection
• Link that staging to an effect on the audience, rather than just listing it

DNA frame

DNA by Dennis Kelly follows a gang after _____ falls and is presumed dead. The silent _____ devises a cover-up. Its central question is whether to sacrifice the _____ for the many. It was first performed at the National _____ in 2008.

Odd one out

Which is a notable feature of DNA, given that it was written in 2007?

• It contains no mobile phones despite its era
• It is set in medieval times
• It has a cast of hundreds
• It is a musical full of songs