DNA

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