3.2.1.3The text at a glance
A group of teenagers bully Adam and believe they have killed him. Phil devises a cover story that leads to an innocent man being arrested. The group becomes happier and more cohesive. Adam is found alive but badly damaged; the group decides what to do about him. Leah disappears and Phil stops speaking.
Written in 2007 for a youth theatre ensemble. It draws on psychological work about conformity and the diffusion of responsibility in groups, and on public anxiety about youth crime.
- diffusion of responsibility
- the effect by which nobody in a group feels personally accountable
- ensemble play
- a play written for a group with no single lead role
- offstage action
- events reported rather than staged, which DNA uses for all its violence
3.2.1.3Characters
Phil is almost silent for much of the play, which makes each speech carry enormous weight. He solves every problem and cares about none of them, separating intelligence from morality entirely.
Leah's long unanswered monologues dramatise the failure to be heard; she supplies the play's moral awareness and then simply leaves.
Cathy gains most from the situation and enjoys it, so the play rewards its least moral character.
3.2.1.3Themes
Group behaviour is the subject: no single character decides anything, so responsibility is dispersed until nobody holds it. The play's most uncomfortable suggestion is that the lie makes everyone better off. Truth and its consequences remain abstract because the innocent man never appears.
Common mistake
Writing that the group are simply bad people. The play is interested in how ordinary people arrive at this collectively, which is why no one gives an order.
3.2.1.3The writer's methods
The structure of short scenes across three locations, the field, the street and the wood, maps complicity by showing who is placed with whom. All the violence happens offstage and is reported, which distances the audience. Beginning after the incident makes the play about consequence rather than act.
Worked example
Answer:
- Nobody decides, so nobody is responsible
- The group thrives as the moral situation worsens
- Leah's monologues are the play's conscience and go unheard
- Violence is always reported, never staged
AO1-AO4How this text is examined
This text is examined in Paper 2, Section A. The question is worth 34 marks and two essay questions are offered on your text and you answer one; no extract is printed, so quotations must come from memory. Allow about 45 minutes.
The marks are divided as AO1 12 marks, AO2 12 marks, AO3 6 marks, AO4 4 marks. AO1 rewards a clear argument supported by well-chosen references. AO2 rewards analysis of how the writer achieves an effect, which means writing about choices rather than about events. AO3 rewards context used to deepen a reading of the text.
Common mistake
Retelling the plot. Narrative summary earns nothing under any assessment objective, however accurate it is. Every paragraph should be making a point about how or why, not about what happens.
Four of the marks are for AO4: vocabulary and sentence structures used to control meaning, and accurate spelling and punctuation. These are the cheapest marks on the paper and the easiest to lose by rushing the final paragraph.