DNA: School Edition (Oberon Modern Plays)

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Adam wants to be part of the group and Mark and Jan see exactly what he will do to be part of their gang: Dialogue: I like the vagueness of Jan and Mark's dialogues appearing at the beginning of every part. The cross-cutting will be fun to perform, though difficult. John Tate only appears in Act 1 Scene 3. He leads through using fear to control others. However, he is visibly falling apart during Act 1 Scene 3 as he panics and is unable to control those around him or the situation. He tries to ban the word, ‘dead,’ he says he will ‘bite their face. Or something. ’ if anyone uses the word again. However, the use of ‘Or something’ shows he has clearly not in control of his thoughts, words or the situation. Richard first appears to be a strong character and potentially someone who is able to be a leader of the group. Lou is scared of him and he presents a challenge to John Tate’s leadership. Although he stands up to John Tate ( You shouldn’t threaten me John’ p17), he is eventually put in his place when John Tate turns the entire group against Richard by telling them to choose sides. (Act 1 Scene 3).

Presents a history of gene science that examines current debates about gene resequencing, tracing the author's family experiences with mental illness and the contributions of key scientists and philosophers. Mukherjee's other book (also phenomenal), The Emperor of All Maladies, focuses on cancer but also looks at the development of gene therapies as a possible treatment. A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Livedby Adam RutherfordA portrait of the Nobel Prize-winning scientist explores the impact of James Watson's The Double Helix on her career and how her team's invention of CRISPR technology enabled revolutionary DNA-editing approaches to fighting disease.

Scene 1: The audience learn that someone is ‘not going’…this is a reference to Brian not going to the police station John Tate to Danny: " you’re on you’re own side, which is, well, to be honest, very silly and dangerous" Although on stage in many scenes, Phil rarely speaks. Usually his action involves eating (ice-cream/Starburst/waffles, etc.). Again, this word laughing is repeated throughout the scene. However, it is also punctuated with other words such as, ‘ terrified’, ‘ crying’, ‘ stubbed out cigarettes’, ‘ punch him’, ‘ pegged a stone’.Cathy appears to have a callous side when she obtains DNA evidence from an actual postman who fits the description Phil made up. Did she do this because she is a social climber who is trying to impress the leader, or did she genuinely not realise what she has done? (p38) A group of teenagers are bullying a boy at their school called Adam. They force him to do things he doesn’t want to do (like running across the motorway, letting them punch him, and eating leaves and dirt). One day their bullying goes to far, and while walking across a gate over a mine shaft whilst being pummeled with stones, Adam falls. Scene 1: Mark and Jan discuss that someone is ‘dead’ and this throws the audience into the middle of the action. Sarcasm (p36) - Leah can’t believe they have found a man that fits their fake description. Richard: " Why don’t you pop down the station and say, ‘excuse me, but the fat postman with the bad teeth doesn’t actually exist, so why don’t you let him go."

Mark :" … so we were sort of, well, alright, taking the piss, sort of. You know what he’s like he was, sort of hanging around" Richard: " Cathy doesn’t care. She’s too busy running things…She’s insane. She cut off a first year’s finger, that’s what they say anyway."Act 4 Scene 2 Phil is sat with Richard in the field. The stage directions clearly state, ‘Phil is not eating.’ Although Richard takes Leah’s role, something is missing/ wrong as Phil is not eating. This is significant. Does he realise he needs Leah? Genes carry biological information that must be copied accurately for transmission to the next generation each time a cell divides to form two daughter cells. Two central biological questions arise from these requirements: how can the information for specifying an organism be carried in chemical form, and how is it accurately copied? The discovery of the structure of the DNA double helix was a landmark in twentieth-century biology because it immediately suggested answers to both questions, thereby resolving at the molecular level the problem of heredity. We discuss briefly the answers to these questions in this section, and we shall examine them in more detail in subsequent chapters. The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson From very early on in the play, Cathy is shown to have no remorse about the groups’ actions. She finds the situation ‘exciting’ and ‘better than ordinary life’ (p16). Her excitement grows when she is asked by the TV for an interview. She shows no concern for Adam and the real reason why the cameras are at the TV station and instead focuses on her own gain: " They might even give me money for it, do you think I should ask for money?" (p36).