It examines peer pressure, leadership, guilt and the way a group can drift into cruelty.
DNA by Dennis Kelly is a play set for IGCSE and International GCSE Literature (OxfordAQA 9275). The board decides the set texts and the years they are examined, and your school confirms them. Our teachers teach whichever text your child sits.
What it is
A group of teenagers have been bullying a classmate, Adam, and a final prank appears to end in his death. Rather than tell the truth, they invent a story with the help of one of the group, Phil, who emerges as a quiet but controlling leader. As the cover-up grows, they plan to blame an invented stranger, and consequences begin to spread.
Anxiety divides the group, with some wanting to confess and others pushing to stay silent. A surprise development changes the situation again, and the play ends in an unsettling stillness. Much of the action is conversation, set in a few simple locations, and the dialogue is fast and fragmentary.
Themes and ideas to track
Guilt, responsibility and consequences
The characters try to avoid blame, and the play asks who is responsible when many take part in wrongdoing.
Peer pressure and group behaviour
The group's decisions are shaped by fear of rejection and the pull of a strong personality. Kelly shows how easily individuals follow.
Power, leadership and manipulation
Phil's influence is subtle, and his calm authority makes others compliant. The play questions the nature of control.
Bullying and cruelty
The victim's treatment is both background and engine of the plot. The play examines how cruelty becomes normal within a group.
How the writer builds it
Kelly writes in short, rapid, naturalistic exchanges, with broken sentences, overlapping thoughts and sudden silences. Some scenes are conversations without action, giving the play a tense, claustrophobic feel. The characters' contrasting voices reveal personality: chatterers, silent figures, anxious followers.
Stage settings are minimal, putting the focus on speech and relationships. Dark humour appears alongside moral horror. Look at who speaks, who stays quiet and how the pace of exchanges changes.
A teacher can practise essay planning on DNA with your child in a one-hour trial.
How to write about it in the exam
Because much of the play's meaning sits in how people talk, analyse rhythm, interruption and silence as dramatic choices. Choose key exchanges, name the technique and explain the effect on an audience.
Track how the balance of power in the group changes. Keep references short and precise and avoid retelling events.
An exam-style question to practise
How does Kelly present the character of Phil?
Plan three points before you write, with a short quotation for each. Then check your plan against the mark scheme section below.
More question angles
- Explore the ways Kelly presents peer pressure in the play.
- How does Kelly use dialogue to create tension?
- Discuss how Kelly presents guilt and responsibility.
How this maps to the mark scheme
Examiners mark Literature answers against assessment objectives. These are the skills the paper rewards. For OxfordAQA 9275, the objectives are summarised on our qualification page.
- AO1: Understanding of, and engagement with, themes, ideas and contexts
- AO2: Analysis of how writers create meanings and effects
For DNA, build your argument around “Guilt, responsibility and consequences” and “Peer pressure and group behaviour”. Support each point with a short quotation. Then analyse the writer's method, using the section above.
Keep context about Dennis Kelly brief and tied to the words on the page.
Read the text alongside these notes. This page is our own analysis and original teaching material. We quote at most a short attributed phrase where a point needs it, so keep your copy of the play open as you read.
Where to go next
Plan your essay with our guide to planning a literature essay, then see a worked answer in our literature essay structure model response. Browse more set-text notes or read about Literature in English tuition.
When you have written an answer on DNA, a paid one-hour trial lesson lets the teacher who would continue mark it with you.