DNA @ Sheffield Studio Theatre

Event: DNA
Description: Theatre
Location: The Studio Theatre
Address: 55 Norfolk Street, Sheffield, Yorkshire, S1 1DA

DNA.  An odd play, and apparently now a GCSE text, which probably explained the large number of teenagers in the audience.  The play itself, I found quite interesting,  yet somehow quite banal, repetitive even.  Maybe this is a deliberate ploy of the writer's to illustrate contemporary teenage existence - it's not all Skins fuck party fuck, nor is it Inbetweeners cringe shy cringe.  Maybe we're all just drifting along, nothing happens, banality one day, profound explanations the next, but we're all too shut off to care?

The story itself was simple enough.  A group of teenagers goaded a weaker boy into perform a dangerous stunt, and he slipped and died.  How, the group are faced with a difficult choice; do they turn themselves in, admit what they've done and face the consequences, or do they wait it out, hope no one will suspect them, even try to push the investigation - and the blame - onto someone else, an innocent man?

The somewhat weak repetitive dialogue was more than made up for by the great performances from the cast.  The lead, I suppose you would say, was Phil (James Alexandrou) although he had roughly 20% of the lines of Leah (Leah Brotherhood) whose monologues provided the profound, the ridiculous and everything in between.  Daniel Francis-Swaby had probably the most difficult role, and was sublime in depicting Brian's slip into semi-sanity.

All in all, quite an enjoyable evening, but it will seem really short at barely 80 minutes, and did on occasions seem quite sluggish.  I think that this was a mediocre evening made good by a strong cast and minimal staging, rather than a great play in itself.  Still, worth checking out.