DNA

by Dennis Kelly

National Tour 2012

****Anthony Banks’s effective production uses projections to create something buzzy and jazzy, but also has the simplicity and clarity of a Greek tragedy filtered through an episode of Skins. Lyn Gardner, Guardian 

«««« This production should have a speed restriction on it! Tension so gripping you could almost taste it. Highly recommended. Director and designer Anthony Banks uses video by Andrzej Goulding and a strip of artificial turf laid over a floor-cloth marked out as one of those ubiquitous QR codes to focus and shift the action. Played without an interval, the tension is heightened by Alex Baranowski’s dark commentary of a score. WhatsOnStage

With its cinematic music and atmospheric projections this is an remarkably enthralling and creepy evening that appeals to our sense of ethics as well as to our fears about teenage misbehaviour. Aleks Sierz, The Artsdesk

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?

This startling new play is fast becoming a contemporary classic with young audiences and has become a core set-text for GCSE English.

Toured in 2012 to: Theatre Royal Plymouth, Rose Theatre Kingston, Sheffield Crucible, Lakeside Arts Centre Nottingham, Curve Leicester, Wolsey Ipswich, North Wall Oxford, Salisbury Playhouse, Ashcroft Croydon, Hull Truck, Royal Exchange Manchester, Unicorn Theatre London, Stephen Joseph Scarborough, Watford Palace, Barnsley Civic, Brewery Tobacco Factory Bristol, Theatre Royal Bath.

Cast James Alexandrou, George Brockbanks, Leah Brotherhead, Emily Butterfield, Tom Clegg, Daniel Francis Swaby, Rhys Jennings, Elexi Walker

Designer Anthony Banks

Video Andrzej Goulding

Lighting James Mackenzie

Music Alex Baranowski

Casting Jim Arnold