Mark
Mark is a teenage boy who is seemingly in a relationship with Jan. He appears on the stage at the beginning of each new scene as he and Jan cryptically discuss the latest development in the crisis in a rapid exchange of short staccato dialogue. Mark explains to Leah and Phil how the group's taunting and torturing of Adam led him to fall into a deep hole. Mark is defensive in his retelling, dismissing the group's responsibility by claiming they were all, including Adam, having a laugh, even as they put out cigarettes on Adam's skin and punched him in the face. At the end of the play, Richard comments that Mark and Jan have taken to shoplifting and selling stolen goods.
Jan
Jan is a teenage girl who is seemingly in a relationship with Mark. She appears at the beginning of each new scene with Mark. When Mark recounts the story of how Adam fell in the hole, Jan is sure to point out that she had gone home by the time Adam ostensibly died. When Brian tries to hide from the police, who want to question him, Jan and Mark retrieve him and force Brian to continue lying about the postman flashing him in the woods.
Leah
Leah is a teenage girl who seems to be in a relationship with Phil, who she always appears alongside. While Phil is silent most of the time, Leah is loquacious, carrying on one-sided philosophical conversations that are completely ignored by Phil. While Leah goes along with Phil's initial plan to cover up Adam's killing, she tries to put an end to the coverup when the group learns Adam is still alive. When Phil ignores her reasoning, she leaves him, running away from the town without telling anyone where she has gone.
Phil
Phil is a teenage boy who seems to be in a relationship with Leah. Phil first appears as a comic relief character, calmly eating treats and snacks while the others panic or while Leah talks incessantly at him. However, when called upon for his opinion, Phil quickly devises a plan to cover up Adam's killing by getting a man's DNA on one of Adam's jumpers and faking footprints in the woods. Despite the diabolical intricacy of the plan, the others do as he says. Phil proceeds to show no emotion when Leah struggles with remorse about the conspiracy they've taken part in. When Phil learns that Adam is alive, he deputizes Cathy to ensure that Brian suffocates Adam in the woods. Leah finally gets a small reaction out of Phil when she leaves him for good. At the end of the play, we learn that Phil sits alone every day in the field where he used to sit with Leah.
Lou
Lou is a member of the group of teenage friends. Having participated in Adam's bullying, Lou goes along with the plan to cover up Adam's death. At the end of the play, Richard comments that Lou has become best friends with Cathy, who has risen to the top of the social hierarchy at school.
John Tate
John Tate is a teenage boy. A notable presence in the first scene of the play, John Tate plays down the others' panic and insists on covering up Adam's death somehow. He hints at his dominance within the group, and alludes to how he made the rest of the school fear its members. Having gone along with Phil's plan, John Tate disappears from the rest of the play. Other characters comment that he isn't leaving his room. Later in the play, Richard tells Phil that John Tate has had a religious awakening and now proselytizes at the mall.
Danny
Danny is a teenage boy. He is a member of the friend group that bullies and seemingly kills Adam. Danny talks frequently about his wish to become a dentist, and tells the others about his fears of not getting into dental college if he's wrapped up in a murder conspiracy. At the end of the play, Richard tells Phil that Danny is doing a work placement at a dentist's office but hates it because the open mouths remind him of holes one could fall into.
Richard
Richard is a teenage boy and something of a leader within the friend group. John Tate alludes to former clashes with Richard, and the two confirm that they are now "mates," united their desire to cover up Adam's death. Like the others, Richard goes along with Phil's plan. At the end of the play, Richard visits Phil in the field where Phil now spends his days sitting in silence without Leah. Richard asks Phil to come back down, but Phil refuses to respond.
Cathy
Cathy is a teenage girl and member of the friend group. When she learns about Adam's assumed death, Cathy grins, and comments on the excitement of being involved in what to everyone else is a crisis. Later, Cathy is thrilled by the idea of appearing on television to be interviewed about Adam's disappearance. Cathy eventually admits to having framed a postman who fits Phil's made-up description by getting the man to handle a jumper of Adam's. Cathy shows her genuine sociopathy when she agrees to make Brian suffocate Adam. At the end of the play, Richard tells Phil that Cathy has become a formidable bully at school; it is rumored that she cut off a younger student's finger.
Brian
Brian is a teenage boy and member of the friend group. Brian is the weakest link in the conspiracy, crying easily and wishing to tell someone what actually happened to Adam. Phil's cover-up plan involves Richard bringing Brian to the headmaster at school so Brian can, while still crying, say that a postman flashed his genitals in the woods. Later, when the police arrest a postman, Brian is called upon to identify him. Phil threatens to kill Brian if he doesn't go through with it. Brian subsequently goes on heavy medication that alters his personality, rendering him goofy and detached from reality. In this state, Brian discovers Adam alive in the woods. Phil takes advantage of Brian's lack of awareness by tricking him into suffocating Adam with a plastic bag. At the end of the play, Richard comments that Brian is only ever drooling or giggling and will likely be put into a mental institution soon.
Adam
Listed in the playbill as "A Boy," Adam is a teenage boy who longs to hang out with the group of friends ostensibly led by John Tate. Although the others have grown up with Adam, they consider him annoying and entertain themselves by humiliating and torturing him. After enduring a day of the others putting out cigarettes on his skin and making him do increasingly dangerous stunts, Adam tries to impress the group by walking on a grille set over a deep shaft. When one of the bullies throws a rock at Adam's head, he falls off the grille. While everyone assumes he has died, Adam lands in a pile of leaves. Disoriented from his head injury, Adam crawls through the shaft until he emerges in the forest, where he takes up residence in a hedge. Brian finds Adam several weeks later and learns he has severe memory loss and has been surviving on rabbits and insects. Rather than bring Adam back into society, Phil gets Cathy and Brian to suffocate Adam with a plastic bag.
