DNA

This new Student Edition of Dennis Kelly's popular play DNA contains introductory commentary and notes by Clare Finburgh Delijani, which gives an in-depth analysis of the play's context and themes.
As well as the complete text of the play, this new Methuen Drama Student Edition includes:
· An introduction to the playwright and social context of the play
· Discussion of the context, themes, characters and dramatic form
· Overview of staging and performance history of the play
· Bibliography of suggested primary and secondary materials for further study.
Dennis Kelly's play DNA centres on friendship, morality and responsibility in odd circumstances. When a group of young friends are faced with a terrible accident, they deliberately make the wrong choices to cover it up and find themselves in an unusually binding friendship where no one will own up to what they've done.

Dennis Kelly is an internationally acclaimed playwright. Stage plays include Debris (Theatre 503 and Battersea Arts Centre, 2003 & 2004); Osama the Hero (Paines Plough and Hampstead Theatre 2004 & 2005; winner of the Meyer Whitworth Award 2006); After the End (Paines Plough, Traverse Theatre, Bush Theatre, UK and international tour, 2005); Love and Money (Young Vic Theatre and Manchester Royal Exchange, 2006); Taking Care of Baby (Hampstead Theatre and Birmingham Repertory Theatre, 2006; winner of the John Whiting Award 2007); DNA (NT Connections, National Theatre, 2007-8); Orphans (Paines Plough, Traverse Theatre, Soho Theatre and Birmingham Rep, 2009; winner of a Fringe First and Herald Angel Award 2009) and The Gods Weep (Royal Shakespear Company and Hampstead Theatre). In 2009 he was voted Best Foreign Playwright 2009 by Theatre Heute, Germany. Work for radio includes The Colony (BBC Radio 3, 2004; Prix Europa Award - Best European Radio Drama and Radio & Music Award - Scripting for Broadcast 2004) and 12 Shares (BBC Radio 4, 2005). He co-wrote the award-winning comedy series Pulling (Silver River and BBC 3, 2006 - 09) and wrote the stage adaptation for Roald Dahl's Matilda, which won the Olivier award for Best New Musical in 2012. Clare Finburgh Delijani is Professor of Theatre and Performance at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. Her research focuses on French, Francophone and UK contemporary performance, notably innovations in French modern and contemporary playwriting and directing; and representations of conflict in UK theatre. She has co-written Jean Genet (with David Bradby, 2011) and co-edited Genet: Performance and Politics (2006) and Contemporary French Theatre and Performance (2011). She is author of a monograph in the Methuen Drama Engage series, Watching War on the Twenty-First Century Stage (2017).

Chronology

COMMENTARY

PLAYWRIGHT AND SOCIAL CONTEXT
CONTEXTS AND THEMES
1. Children
2. Violence
3. Torture and Human Rights Abuse
4. The Individual and the Community
CHARACTERS
1. Phil, bullying and domination;
2. Brian and the refusal to be complicit in abuse;
3. Adam, victimisation and survival;
4. Leah and feminist non-violence.
DRAMATIC FORM
1. The Timeless and the Everyday
2. Poetry of the Everyday
STAGING DNA
1. Genre
2. Scenography
3. Time
PRODUCTION HISTORY
PLAY TEXT
FURTHER READING AND VIEWING