JAN: DEAD?
MARK: Yeah.
JAN: What, dead?
MARK: Yeah.
JAN: Like dead, dead?
MARK: Yes.
JAN: proper dead, not living dead?
MARK: Not living dead, yes.
With the opening lines of DNA, Dennis Kelly establishes a template for the beginning of each of the four scenes: Jan and Mark are alone on stage engaged in a staccato exchange of dialogue about the latest development in their crisis. In this first use of the repeated scene-opener, Jan and Mark cryptically discuss the issue at the center of the play: an acquaintance of theirs is dead—or so they believe. By having the characters repeat the word "dead" incessantly, Kelly shows how the teenagers reach a consensus about the fact of Adam's death without confirming that he is actually dead.
JOHN TATE: Everything is, everything's fine.
LOU: Fine?
JOHN TATE: Not Fine, no.
DANNY: Fine?
JOHN TATE: Not fine exactly, alright, fair enough, I mean things are bad. [...] It’s a tricky.
LOU: Tricky?
Before the audience learns the full gravity of the situation the secondary-school students are facing, we are treated to a comedic exchange between John Tate, Lou and Danny. Positioning himself as an authority figure within the group of friends, John Tate denies the seriousness of Adam's presumed death with ironic understatement. First calling things "fine," he amends his assessment, calling the situation "tricky." For Lou and Danny, John Tate's attempts at denial are plainly absurd when they believe they've taken part in the cruel-minded but unintentional killing of a classmate.
LOU: Because he's dead, John, he's dead, dead is what he is so we have to use that word to –
JOHN TATE: Alright. New rule; that word is banned.
As the comedic exchange between John Tate, Lou, and Danny continues in Scene One, Lou repeats the phrase "He's dead" to try to get John Tate to agree that they are in fact dealing with an incredibly serious situation. Revealing that there is no limit to his absurd denial, John Tate tries bully his friends into not saying the word, childishly declaring it "banned." With this paltry attempt at control over the situation, John Tate betrays his inadequacy in leading the group through a crisis that threatens to destroy each of their lives.
RICHARD enters, with CATHY and BRIAN, CATHY grinning, BRIAN crying.
[...]
CATHY: This mad, eh? [...] Talk about mad. I mean, it's quite exciting as well, though, isn't it. [...] Better than ordinary life.
As Scene One progresses, Kelly introduces several more characters who have had some part in Adam's presumed death. The introduction of Cathy and Brian establishes an immediate juxtaposition between the characters: While Brian cries—a reasonable response to the crisis—Cathy grins maniacally. Entertained by her classmate's death and the panic surrounding it, Cathy remarks that the situation is "mad," and perversely considers it preferable to regular life. While the morality of her friends is undoubtedly in question, Cathy reveals from the outset of the play an inherent sadism.
JAN: You know what he's like, he's —
MARK: Do anything. And you're thinking 'Will he do anything? What won't he do?'
JAN: Let us punch him.
MARK: He was laughing.
JAN: In the face.
MARK: He was laughing.
JAN: At first.
MARK: Yeah, at first he was, I mean we took it a bit far, alright, half hour, forty minutes.
JAN: I mean he was still joking all the way, but —
MARK: You could tell.
JAN: He weren't really.
MARK: Fear.
Once the group of friends has assembled in one location, Mark reveals to Leah and Phil how their usual bullying of Adam took on a new and dangerous cruelty. Despite having ostensibly killed Adam, Mark's continued contempt for their classmate is clear in the way he writes Adam off as being too willing to do anything to impress the others. As though Adam deserved to be treated so harshly, Mark explains that Adam's compliance prompted them to torture him in increasingly sinister ways. However, Mark and Jan admit that as much fun as it was to beat Adam, and as much as Adam tried to make it seem like he was in on the joke, they nonetheless could tell that Adam was terrified to see how far they would go in abusing him.
MARK: And someone’s pegged a stone at him. Not to hit him, just for the laugh. And you shoulda seen his face, I mean the fear, the, it was so, you had to laugh, the expression, the fear... So we’re all pegging them. Laughing. And his face, it’s just making you laugh harder and harder, and they’re getting nearer and nearer. And one hits his head. And the shock on his face is so... funny. And we’re all just... just... really chucking these stones into him, really hard and laughing and he slips. And he drops. Into... Into the er... So he’s... So he’s... So he’s -
JOHN TATE: Dead. He’s dead.
After spending the first quarter of the play stoking the audience's curiosity, Kelly finally reveals the crisis at the center of the play: Despite the danger Adam faced as he stood on a small grate suspended over a deep air shaft, the group of teens, having whipped themselves into a violent frenzy, threw stones at Adam until one hit him in the head and knocked him off the grille. Because of their culpability, the teens chose not to seek any help in rescuing Adam or retrieving his body. Having jumped to the conclusion that he died, the selfish and cowardly students have sought the advice of Phil to get them out of trouble. In this way, Kelly shows that despite feeling some remorse for killing Adam, they have not shed the disregard for him that led them to abuse and injure him in the first place.
PHIL: Cathy and Mark you meet them there, but on the way you find a quiet street, you wait until it’s just you and a man, you walk ahead of him and when you're far ahead you drop the jumper. The man picks it up, runs after you covering it in DNA and then gives it back, make sure you let him drop it in the bag, say you’re taking it to a charity shop. Take it to the south entrance, tear it a little, chuck it in a hedge, all go home and wait a day or two until Adam’s declared missing and then John Tate comes forward and says he thinks he saw Adam with a fat man in a uniform by Asda’s but he can’t be sure, they’ll think he’s been abducted, they’ll be inquiries, police, a mourning service and if everyone keeps their mouths shut we should be fine. Any questions?
Having said nothing for most of the first third of the play, Phil delivers an elaborate plan to cover up Adam's death. In this passage, Phil sets out an objective to mislead the forensic investigators who will be assigned to Adam's missing-person case by getting a random man's DNA in the form of skin cells on a garment of Adam's. By combining the invented description of a heavy-set postal worker who flashes boys in the woods with male DNA, Phil believes the police will conduct a search that will ultimately turn up no suspects, leading everyone to conclude Adam was abducted by a pedophile. As absurd and complicated as the plan is, the irresponsible and cruel friends decide to undertake the cover-up conspiracy rather than own up to their actions and face consequences.
LEAH: Are you sure? I mean are you...
DANNY: Definitely. He’s in custody now. They’re questioning him.
LEAH: But how, I mean who, how, who, who is, who is, how?
LOU: Dunno.
LEAH: Who is he?
LOU: He’s the man who kidnapped Adam.
LEAH: Right. No.
LOU: Yes.
LEAH: No.
DANNY: Yes.
LEAH: No, no, yeah, no, actually, because that man, the man who, he doesn’t actually, I mean I’m not being fussy or anything, but the man who kidnapped Adam doesn’t actually exist, does he. Well does he?
In Scene Two, the friends get together to discuss a startling new development in the search for Adam's kidnapper: the arrest of a suspect. Having put Phil's plan into action, the students stole one of Adam's jumpers and got a man's DNA on it; simultaneously, Brian lied to the school headmaster about a fat postman flashing his genitals in the woods. In this exchange, Leah worries over the confusing news that the police have found a suspect fitting the description Brian gave. Leah tries to point out what ought to be a simple fact: no such man exists. However, Lou and Danny imply that they are willing to go along with their conspiracy still, even if it means an innocent man is charged with Adam's killing. The passage is significant because it shows Leah's burgeoning sense of disgust with her friends' immorality.
CATHY: You told us to get DNA evidence. We got DNA evidence. We did what you said.
LEAH: Right. Okay. Hang on. Where did you get the DNA evidence?
CATHY: From a man, like you said. A man down the sorting office.
They stare at her.
LEAH: What?
CATHY: Well, we thought, you know, I mean you'd given a description so we thought, well, I thought, you know, show initiative, we'll look for a fat balding postman with bad teeth. There were quite a few.
The answer to the group's questions about how the police could have found a suspect comes with the revelation that Cathy took "initiative" when fulfilling her part of the conspiracy. While Phil merely wanted a random man's DNA on the jumper to mislead the police, Cathy sought out a man who fit the fabricated description of a genital flasher in the woods. At the postal sorting office, she found several suitable men and chose one to trick into handling Adam's jumper. Now, the police have cross-referenced the DNA on the jumper with Brian's description. With this news, the friends find the stakes growing more extreme: If they don't let the innocent man take the fall for a crime with which he had nothing to do, they'll have to own up to their part in Adam's death and the subsequent conspiracy to cover it up.
PHIL: I’m in charge. Everyone is happier. What’s more important: one person or everyone?
She stares at him.
LEAH: It’s Adam, Phil, Adam! We used to go to his birthday parties, he used to have that cheap ice cream and we used to take the piss, remember?
PHIL: If he comes back our lives are ruined. He can’t come back, Cathy.
LEAH: Oh, great, now you’re talking to Cathy, like, I’m not, I’m not, because you don’t like what I say and now it’s Cathy, you sit there and you say nothing for years and suddenly now you’re chatting with Cathy.
PHIL: Cathy?
LEAH: Let’s, come on, let’s, it won’t be that bad, it’ll be, we can explain. We can talk. We can go through the whole thing and make them understand —
PHIL: (To Cathy.) Do you understand?
LEAH: Understand what?
CATHY: Yeah. I do.
In Scene Three, the conspirators must deal with another development that threatens to expose their lies: Adam has been living in the woods. After chatting with Adam about how he came to be living in a hedge with severe memory loss, Phil sends Adam back to his hedge home and plots the next stage in his conspiracy. While Leah knows the right thing to do is bring Adam back to his parents and let the innocent postman go free, Phil knows that the truth will inevitably come out if Adam returns. Showing that his diabolical nature doesn't just apply to covering up crimes, Phil deputizes Cathy to oversee Adam's killing. While the coldhearted decision to kill Adam may insulate the group from legal consequences, Phil sacrifices his relationship with Leah, who will leave him at the end of the scene.
