Characters: Distinct, can afford more development. I like that there are no adults in this play. The straight-up intense power-play between the teen characters is fascinating. From a performing perspective, Leah and Phil are such an exciting duo. She makes so many decisions in this play and her monologues really invite the audience to think and feel with her; the dynamic between the two is also complicated and tips over at the end of Part Three. They all think that he’s dead, and go about making a plan to hide what they’ve done. Their plan goes slightly wrong when they frame an innocent postman for ‘kidnapping’ Adam. Brian, a member of their group, refuses to go to the police station and confirm that he saw the man alone with Adam. However, he ends up going because Phil threatens to throw him down the grate to ‘rot together’ with Adam. A group of teenagers are bullying a boy at their school called Adam. They force him to do things he doesn’t want to do (like running across the motorway, letting them punch him, and eating leaves and dirt). One day their bullying goes to far, and while walking across a gate over a mine shaft whilst being pummeled with stones, Adam falls. DNA presents the issue that characters acting as a group demolishes the restrictions a person acting individually would usually impose on themselves. Resulting, is the person’s susceptibility to conformist groupthink. An example of this in the story is Mark and Jan’s retelling of the incident that lead to Adam’s presumed demise. Their repeated use of “we” implies that they were intoxicated with the power and freedom of consequence they felt, in acting as a group, “We’re having a laugh thinking what’s this nutter going to do next, we can make him do, we can make him do…”. After learning of Adam’s death, however, their fear of facing repercussions that mirror the intimidation and abuse they themselves executed on Adam, is revealed by their willingness to cover up the murder. This fear acts as proof to show that the bullies do have the ability to sympathize with Adam. Yet despite knowing of their wrongdoing, they continued to harass him. Why?

Scene 1: Mark and Jan discuss that someone is ‘dead’ and this throws the audience into the middle of the action. Again, this word laughing is repeated throughout the scene. However, it is also punctuated with other words such as, ‘ terrified’, ‘ crying’, ‘ stubbed out cigarettes’, ‘ punch him’, ‘ pegged a stone’.Throughout the entire play, Leah has been trying to gain Phil’s attention, and he is constantly ignoring her. Now Phil turns to her for approval and puts his arm round her. She pushes him away and runs off. Now Phil realises that even Leah is rejecting him, he begins to think about what he has done, and spends the rest of the play by himself, refusing to talk to anyone. Leah: " It’s Adam, Phil, Adam! We used to go to his birthday parties, he used to have that cheap ice cream and we used to take the piss, remember?" (p58) Lou has no complicated speeches but instead speaks using simple sentences or short phrases. Phrases such as ‘We’re screwed’ (p34) make her appear young/ not assertive and relies on being given instruction. She also appears to believe the lies the group have created (p35)

By the end of the play we learn that Cathy is now in charge and appears to have a sadistic nature. Phil has left the group so she assumes the leader role she seems to have been craving.Although quiet for a long time, Phil clearly considers everyone’s words and actions before he speaks. He gives calm and considered instructions to each member of the group as he assigns roles and tasks for them to complete. This makes him appear callous and nihilistic. A key quote that justifies his actions: From very early on in the play, Cathy is shown to have no remorse about the groups’ actions. She finds the situation ‘exciting’ and ‘better than ordinary life’ (p16). Her excitement grows when she is asked by the TV for an interview. She shows no concern for Adam and the real reason why the cameras are at the TV station and instead focuses on her own gain: " They might even give me money for it, do you think I should ask for money?" (p36). Genes carry biological information that must be copied accurately for transmission to the next generation each time a cell divides to form two daughter cells. Two central biological questions arise from these requirements: how can the information for specifying an organism be carried in chemical form, and how is it accurately copied? The discovery of the structure of the DNA double helix was a landmark in twentieth-century biology because it immediately suggested answers to both questions, thereby resolving at the molecular level the problem of heredity. We discuss briefly the answers to these questions in this section, and we shall examine them in more detail in subsequent chapters. Dialogue: I like the vagueness of Jan and Mark's dialogues appearing at the beginning of every part. The cross-cutting will be fun to perform, though difficult.