A significant character

A significant character in DNA is the postman. Important and key to the play. All part of a plan. The “group” decide to blame Adams death, on a man that doesn't exist. 

“A postman with bad breath, large and brown teeth”. 

"The group" terrified of getting caught report this to the police. A man is found of this description. A innocent postman being arrested for a murder he never did. How would the postman feel about this? What about his family? His children? These where questions about this character I asked to my-self. The postman's respect he had would be lost. How would he prove it wasn't him? Would anyone ever believe him?

Some characters in DNA feel guilt towards the postman, while others take no pity. All in all "The gang" brush it to the back of their minds and just get on with life.

I feel distress and misery for this hopeless character who is totally innocent but accused anyway. The postman never says a single line in the DNA but is extremely key within it. Visualizing how confused and distraught this man must feel is upsetting. I take pity on him and am effected by hearing what position he must be in: innocent but not able to prove it. How must that feel?

Roll-on-wall and Brians backstory

We created Roll-on-the-walls to develop a clearer understanding of our characters. Our group came out with a clearer understanding of Brian. We studied Brian's lines, and tried to look for characteristics within them. What feelings he showed when he spoke the lines? We copied down quotes of Brian's and linked them with feelings. Throughout doing this activity, I defiantly learnt more about Brian as a character. How he is even taken advantage of by his peers but just laughs about it.

Click the link for the link for the video- 

http://year10actingup.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/lesson-2-15th-november-2012.html

For Brian we linked his emptiness and madness into a snapshot of his world. Our ideas where thrown together. We particular focused on the relationship of Brian and his father. The neglect he received and responsibility he was expected. Brian was treated as an out cast and bullied by the rest of his siblings. We showed how Brian's nurture effected him as a person. He traits are clearly the opposite of what his father wanted him to be. What draws me to Brian is how remarkably interesting he is. How he approaches things and deals with certain situations. He advertises himself as childish and naive. A dreamer that doesn't seem quite with it."D'you ever feel like the trees are watching you?" from this quote I feel he's slightly mad, what Brian says can be out of the blue and confusing. Brian will always keep the audience questioning. 

A group that particular kept me intrigued was the backstory of "Leah"  

The group was effective, cause they showed different stages of Leah being ignored by her family and friends. This created sympathy towards her and lead the audience to question why her family and friends payed no attention to her? The neglect she received and love she never got. There piece showed emotion and frustration within Leah. It stood out to me and caused me to dwell on how her nurture impacted her nature, making her insecure about herself.

Brian's song

This song is emotional and strange. Two things that I feel resemble Brian. The song is also quite cold and doesn't have a clear message within. It's puzzling and you want to know why the words in it are being said. 

This song is deep and slightly creepy in a strange sense. But overall I feel this song gives similar messages to what I thought of Brian.

First Response

We read a play called DNA by Dennis Kelly. From the first view words of the play I was immediately drawn in. Dennis kept me questioning throughout the play, keeping me on edge the entire time. The play kicks in with the word "Dead”, short but extremely effective. Later on we start to un-ravel the mystery of Dennis's play.

Dennis's informal writing style kept me focused because I relate to the language used. I understood the story-line and the charters in it. In the play we discover one of the characters "Adam" who has been harassed and teased by a young group of teen-agers. We find out that Adam has supposedly fell down a grille after the teenagers had been tormenting him. We realize that Adam was taken advantage of and he was just used to be laughed at.

I was attracted to certain charters more than others. On in particular was Leah, she appealed to me because of how desperate she was, which made her character effective and stand out. I felt sympathy for her because of the attention she craved but never got from Phil. Leah rambled on to Phil, getting nowhere and beginning to make herself feel frustrated and ramble on further. Phil starts to agitate and annoy the audience by saying nothing. Phil particularly intrigues me. His character is puzzling and you want to know the reasoning to why he takes no notice of Leah's attempts to get his attention. Phil is not a character that appeals to me because of his unsettling personality. 

We do eventually discover that Adam has survived and has been living in the woods surviving on leaves. At the very end of the play Dennis creates a cliff hanger that leaves your mind spinning. Overall Dennis is an extremely talented play writer that has written a play using characters that are a similar age to us.