DNA

DNA (2008) is a four-act play by Dennis Kelly, originally commissioned by the National Theatre for its Connections programme for young performers. The play follows a group of teenagers who accidentally cause the apparent death of a boy called Adam by throwing stones at him while he walks on a grille over a deep shaft. Rather than confess, the group constructs an elaborate cover-up - inventing a fictional abductor - that spirals into increasingly dark moral compromises: framing an innocent man, threatening a traumatised member of the group, and ultimately concealing the fact that Adam survived.

The central movement

The play tracks the group's descent from a bullying prank into collective guilt, cover-up and moral collapse. Phil, a silent, food-obsessed outsider, takes control and devises plans that grow progressively more ruthless. As the cover-up succeeds, the group fragments: John Tate retreats, Brian loses his sanity, Leah is morally anguished but powerless, and Cathy rises as a violent new leader. When Adam is found alive but brain-damaged, Phil chooses to hide him rather than expose the lie, and ultimately sends Cathy and Brian to silence Adam for good. Leah, the one character who consistently protests, disappears from the school entirely.

Why it matters for the exam

For OxfordAQA Paper 1 Section B (Drama), you must analyse how Kelly uses dramatic structure, language and staging to explore themes of group responsibility, moral cowardice and the corrupting effect of power. The play's examination of teenage cruelty, silence as complicity, the tension between individual conscience and group loyalty, and the absence of adult authority makes it a rich and disturbing text for essay questions on character, theme and dramatic technique.