Summary
The action moves to Leah and Phil sitting in a field. Leah says apparently bonobos are humans’ nearest relatives in the animal world. She says chimps are completely different; they’re evil. She says they murder and torture each other to find a better position within their social structures. She says when a bonobo encounters a pack of stranger bonobos, the newcomer will be welcomed with curiosity. When a bonobo is injured, the others will feel its pain and take care of it. She says they have visible empathy in their eyes.
Phil pulls out a bag of crisps (chips). Leah says he doesn’t care what she says—she could be speaking Chinese and it wouldn’t make a difference to him. She says she wonders sometimes what he would do if she killed herself right in front of him. She grabs her throat and pretends to strangle herself, her face going red as she writhes on the ground. Phil is unresponsive. Leah gets up and sits again. She says the bonobos are “sex mad,” always at it. She says she saw a TV program where they were swapping partners and breaking every taboo in human sexuality; it was like an orgy when they got going. She says, “We’re in trouble now, Phil. Don’t know how this’ll pan out. Trouble now.”
In Scene Two, Jan and Mark are in a street talking about how someone is “not going.” Jan asks if this really the case. Mark insists it is, repeating, “He’s not going.” The action cuts to Leah and Phil in a field. Phil is eating a pack of Starburst candy. Leah has a Tupperware container on her lap. Leah discusses happiness, saying that there is pressure put on people to be happy, and any deviation is seen as a failure. She compares the vicious cycle of feeling more unhappy about one’s failure to be happy to global warming. From there, Leah talks about how people are the anomaly in the universe. She says that Phil is different than others: he can see the incredible beauty and fragility of reality.
Leah says she can remember the happiest moment of her life: it was watching a sunset on the Tuesday before last. She opens the Tupperware container and shows Phil. She says it’s Jerry—she took him out of his cage and killed him by driving a screwdriver into his head with a hammer. She asks Phil why he thinks she did it. Phil shrugs. She says she doesn’t know why either.
Leah closes the lid and says everything is much better now that everyone is working together. She says she’s noticed signs of a new friendship between Cathy and Danny, and between Mark and Richard. She says grief is “pouring into the school” and “making them happy.” Leah adds that John Tate has “lost it,” and won’t come out of his room. She wonders if that’s what is making people happier, or if it’s simply that they have something to work on together. She wonders where it will stop. It’s been four days and everything has changed. Leah says Adam’s parents were on TV last night making an appeal to the fat postman with bad teeth. She questions what they have done. Mark and Jan approach. Jan says they need to talk.
The action moves to the woods. Phil and Leah are with Lou and Danny. Phil has a muffin. Lou and Danny explain that the police have found “the man.” He’s in custody being questioned. Leah asks who he is. Lou says he doesn’t know, just that he’s the man who kidnapped Adam. Leah reminds them that the man who kidnapped Adam doesn’t exist. Lou says “they’ve got him.” Leah panics, asking Phil if he has anything to say. Danny says the man fit the description: fat postman with thinning hair and terrible teeth.
Danny and Lou ask what they’re going to do. Without fully saying it, Leah asks aloud if they’re going to confess. Danny says the police are looking for Brian because he can identify the postman. Leah says Brian can’t, because this man wasn’t in the woods flashing children. There was no man in the woods.
Leah learns Brian is hiding. Mark and Jan have gone to find him. Leah says you can’t go to prison for bad teeth. Danny asks what happens if he does. Leah assures him the man won’t be charged because he didn’t do anything. Danny says, “This sort of stuff sticks, you know.” Danny asks how he’s going to get his three references needed for dental college now.
Richard and Cathy enter the scene to say they’ve come from the police station, which is full of reporters. Cathy says it was great; Richard says it was “shit.” Cathy says they want to interview her. She is excited to get on TV. She wonders if she’ll even be paid for it. Lou says the man is going to go to prison. Leah says they’re going to need evidence—fibers or DNA. Richard says they have DNA evidence they found on the jumper (sweater). They ran it through the police database and came up with this suspect.
Leah says it’s impossible: they made the description up and they got DNA from a random person. Leah cuts herself off and stares at Cathy. Cathy says they told them to get DNA evidence, and they did. She says they went down to the postal sorting office and found a man who fit the description Brian gave. Cathy says they showed initiative. It dawns on the others what Cathy has done.
Analysis
After Phil has delivered his insane plan to cover up Adam’s death, he and Leah sit together in a field, returning to their usual relationship of Leah talking and Phil not responding. The themes of empathy and sadism arise as Leah discusses a nature documentary she recently watched about bonobos and chimps. According to Leah, while scientists once believed humans were most closely related to chimps—an inherently sadistic species of primate—humans are actually closer relatives to empathic bonobos; nevertheless, there are still some humans who identify more readily with chimps. With this juxtaposition, playwright Dennis Kelly depicts Leah beginning to work out her feelings about which type of primate she sees herself as being akin to—a caring bonobo or an “evil” chimp.
In Scene Two, Kelly returns to Leah and Phil in the field. Some time has passed since the group enacted Phil’s plan. Leah, continuing to explore her internal conflict between empathy and sadism, reveals to Phil that she killed her pet rodent by hammering a screwdriver into its head. She admits that she doesn’t know why she did it. However, this symbolic act shows that Leah is processing the remorse of not having told the truth about Adam. In a subconscious move, she was compelled to reenact Adam’s killing by meaninglessly ending the life of another innocent.
The theme of peer pressure returns as Leah comments on the alienation she feels within the social group now that everyone is mourning Adam’s death. She notes an instance of situational irony in which the atmosphere of grief pervading the school is counterintuitively making everyone happier. Leah doesn’t identify with this perverse happiness, however, and she notes that John Tate doesn’t seem able to relate to anyone either, as he has taken to hiding in his room. Empathy also arises when she comments on the sadness of watching Adam’s parents appeal on television for the made-up abductor to return their son. With these reflections, Leah sets herself apart from the rest of the group as someone who is likely too sensitive to continue propping up the conspiracy.
While it seems at first that Phil’s conspiracy cover-up might have worked, in an instance of situational irony, the police arrest a suspect who somehow fits the description Phil made up. The themes of empathy and peer pressure resurface as Leah suggests that they couldn’t possibly let an innocent man go to prison or, if he’s released, be forever seen as a child abductor in his community. As she says this, Lou and Danny implicitly pressure her into continuing with the conspiracy to avoid all of them getting into trouble.
The mystery of how the police connected the postman’s DNA to Adam is explained Cathy admits that she “took initiative” and framed a postman by getting his DNA on Adam’s jumper. While it would have sufficed to distract forensic investigators with a random man’s DNA, Cathy—who evidently lacks all sense of right and wrong—saw no reason not to make an innocent man take the fall for their crime. With this new development in the crisis, the group discovers that the stakes of their conspiracy have risen.
