View from the Green Room: Self-interest trumps integrity in superb teen drama
The cast of DNA at the Theatre Royal.
The drama department of WAMA (Waterford Academy of Music and Arts) offered up a superb production of the Dennis Kelly teen play ‘DNA’ to a good house at the Royal.
DNA – think ‘Adolescence’ meets ‘Lord of the Flies’ – is the developing tale of a group of teens who have taken the life of young and bullied Adam and neither want to face up to what they’ve done nor take responsibility for their actions. The group’s ability to lie and cheat their way out of the killing, along with the group delusion that their own self-interest trumps the rights of a single person’s life, is the heart of the drama.
Last seen, Adam (Dara Mac Niocail) is balancing himself on top of a grill-covered shaft with his ‘friends’ throwing rocks at him.
"It was so funny…he looked so dopey…stupid Adam…he probably didn’t care anyway…deserved it," agree the teens until he disappears down the shaft and the hunt to escape the blame takes root.
Phil (Cian Kennedy) will know. Detached, aloof, devoid of all empathy with a cunning brain and a natural leader, all look to Phil for a plan. A genius or a psychopath, Phil instils fear in all the group. And enjoys it. The others accept the elaborate scheme – involving multiple layers of complexity and unwilling conspirators – that involves laying blame on an innocent postman and lying to police.
Hey…they’ve got their futures to protect and Adam – well poor Adam doesn’t have one now that he’s dead – and the teens have to protect their own. Hey, one of them – Danny (Quinlan Hennessy) wants to be a dentist and won’t get into a dental school if word of their murder of their little friend gets out. How unfair is that? Peer pressure, fear of the leader and self-interest drive on the drama of corruption and evil as the teens become determined to get away with murder.
Clever use of side-flats of blackened tree-trunks and forest branches matched by a similar rear-screen projection serve as an alternative world of fairytales with happy endings that take place in forests where good always triumphs over evil and the bad are always punished.
Acting is superb throughout although Holly Gunnip’s performance, as the conflicted wannabee girlfriend to Cian Kennedy’s chillingly-cold Phil, is the real deal.
Emily O’Doherty, Isla O’Connor, Ryan Keogh, Eoghann Moodley, Lola Rodger, Fionn Hartery and Aisling Markey make up the rest of a word and character perfect production that sadly only runs for one performance.
Paula Weldon’s direction is powerful, pacy and remarkably understated. All of the characters are well defined and separate and evolve naturally as the pages of Dennis Kelly’s remarkable script turn.
A powerful production from WAMA at the Royal.
