DNA

Dennis Kelly

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781840028409
• eBook ISBN: 9781849432375
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: British Drama

A group of teenagers do something bad, really bad, then panic and cover the whole thing up. But when they find that the cover-up unites them and brings harmony to their otherwise fractious lives, where's the incentive to put things right? DNA is a poignant and, sometimes, hilarious tale with a very dark heart.
A contemporary play for younger people, DNA opened at the National Theatre in February 2008

One

A Street. MARK and JAN.

JAN: Dead?

MARK: Yeah.

JAN: What, dead?

MARK: Yeah

JAN: Like dead, dead

MARK: Yes

JAN: proper dead, not living dead?

MARK: Not living dead, yes.

JAN: Are you sure?

MARK: Yes.

JAN: I mean there’s no

MARK: No.

JAN: mistake or

MARK: No mistake.

JAN: it’s not a joke

MARK: It’s not a joke.

JAN: coz it’s not funny.

MARK: it’s not funny because it’s not a joke, if it was a joke it would be funny.

JAN: Not hiding?

MARK: Not hiding, dead.

JAN: not

MARK: Dead.

JAN: Oh.

MARK: Yes.

JAN: God.

MARK: Yes.

JAN: God.

MARK: Exactly.

Pause.

JAN: What are we going to do?

* * *

A Field. LEAH and PHIL, PHIL eating an ice cream.

LEAH: What are you thinking?

No answer.

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. I won’t judge you, whatever it is. Whatever you’re, you know, I won’t, I won’t...

Is it me?

Not that I’m –

I mean it wouldn’t matter if you weren’t or were, actually, so –

Are you thinking about me?

No answer.

What good things? Phil? Or...

I mean is it a negative, are you thinking a negative thing about –

Not that I’m bothered. I’m not bothered, Phil, I’m not, it doesn’t, I don’t care. You know. I don’t...

What, like I talk too much? Is that it? That I talk too much, you, sitting there in absolute silence thinking ‘Leah talks too much, I wish she’d shut up once in a while’ is that it, is that what you’re, because don’t, you know, judge, you know, because alright, I do. There, I’m admitting, I am admitting, I talk too much, so shoot me. So kill me, Phil, call the police, lock me up, rip out my teeth with a pair of rusty pliers, I talk too much, what a crime, what a sin, what an absolute catastrophe, stupid, evil, ridiculous, because you’re not perfect actually, Phil. Okay? There. I’ve said it, you’re not...

You’re a bit...

You’re...

Pause. She sits.

Do I disgust you? I do. No, I do. No don’t because, it’s alright, it’s fine, I’m not gonna, you know, or whatever, you know it’s not the collapse of my, because I do have, I could walk out of here, there are friends, I’ve got, I’ve got friends, I mean alright, I haven’t got friends, not exactly, I haven’t, but I could, if I wanted, if I wanted, given the right, given the perfect, you know, circumstances. So don’t, because you haven’t either, I mean it’s not like you’re, you know, Mr, you know, popular, you know, you haven’t, you know, you haven’t, you know, you haven’t, but that’s, that’s different, isn’t it, I mean it is, it is, don’t say it isn’t, really, don’t, you’ll just embarrass us both because it is different, it’s different because it doesn’t matter to you. Does it. Sitting there. Sitting there, all...

all...

You’re not scared. Nothing scares, there, I’ve said it; scared. Scared, Phil. I’m scared, they scare me, this place, everyone, the fear, the fear that everyone here, and I’m not the only one, I’m not the only one, Phil, I’m just the only one saying it, the fear that everyone here lives in, the brutal terror, it scares me, okay, I’ve said it and I am not ashamed. Yes, I am ashamed but I’m not ashamed of my shame, Phil, give me that much credit at least, thank you.

Everyone’s scared.

S’not just me.

Pause.

We’ve got each other.

We need each other.

So don’t give it all...

You need me as much as...

Don’t give it all the...

Beat.

What are you thinking?

JAN and MARK enter.

Pause.

MARK: We need to talk to you.

LEAH: Oh, shit.

* * *

A Wood. LOU, JOHN TATE and DANNY.

LOU: It’s fucked.

JOHN TATE: No, no, it’s not, no, Lou, it’s not

LOU: We’re fucked.

JOHN TATE: No, Lou, we’re not...it’s not...we’re not...nothing’s...

LOU: It is.

JOHN TATE: No, no, no, look, there I have to, I really have to, you’re going to have to listen to me on this one, and you are going to have to believe me. Everything is, everything’s fine.

LOU: Fine?

JOHN TATE: Not Fine, no

DANNY: Fine?

JOHN TATE: not fine exactly, alright, fair enough, I mean things are bad, things are a little, alright, yes, I’m not trying to hide the, this is tricky, it’s a tricky

LOU: Tricky?

JOHN TATE: situation, but it’s not, because actually what you are saying is a very negative, and that’s...

Look, haven’t I looked after things before?

LOU: This is different.

JOHN TATE: Lou, are you scared of anyone in this school?

LOU: You?

JOHN TATE: Apart from me.

LOU: No.

JOHN TATE: Exactly

LOU: Richard, maybe

JOHN TATE: exactly, that’s exactly, that’s what I’m saying – Richard, you’re scared of, are you...? – I mean you can walk down any corridor in this – I don’t think Richard’s – any corridor in this school and you know, no-one bothers you and if you want something it’s yours and no-one bothers you and everyone respects you and everyone’s scared of you a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Characters
• Contents
• One
• Two
• Three
• Four
• eCopyright