Review: DNA

DNA
Old Fitzroy Theatre
Until 2 May
Tickets $21-$35
Bookings 1300 438 849
Critic’s Rating 6/10


A bunch of teenagers has done something terribly wrong and now a boy has gone missing. In a fit of panic the group tries to cover up their crime with a cold hearted ringleader showing the way.

In this modern day Lord of the Flies, British playwright Dennis Kelly utilises his astonishing ear for teenage conversation and establishes a dog-eat-dog plot in a schoolyard.

This is a world where teenagers have grown up with crime television and DNA evidence making their seduction all the more ruthless.

With a sparse set of hanging light bulbs and carpet underlay by Jessie Giraud, director Kellie Mackereth makes good use of the intimate Old Fitzroy Theatre where the big cast of eleven enter from every corner of the space.

Using Yael Naim’s beautiful remix of Britney Spears’s Toxic as a theme song (which inspires a sound design by Rosie Chase) this production has an appealing quality and tone of American Beauty.

But with so many actors on stage in so many group moments the actors are often caught out not knowing what to do or where to go while moments of angst bubble to the surface centre stage.