DNA Page 4
things
I fell, I falled into, I fell onto this...
wake, woke, wake up, I woke up with liquid on my head, leaves, dead and rotting, I remember leaves, but just dark maybe a light high, high, high, high, high...
above and, I drank the liquid it was blood, there was, it was mine, so I, it’s not wrong because it was my
crawling for a long time, I thought, but that was hard to tell, tunnels, scared, I was, I felt like the dark was my fear, do you know what I mean? I was wrapped in it. Like a soft blanket.
And then I came out.
I saw this
light, this daylight light, I saw this light and went that way, towards, and I thought I died because that’s what people
go to the light, you
and there was such a pain in my
I thought the light would make it go, but it didn’t because the
light was...this.
Beat.
I was confused.
Beat.
Outside. I was sad, crushed.
Came outside.
I couldn’t remember things.
I couldn’t remember anything.
I was new.
A new
a new
a new me. And I felt
happy.
It hurt to laugh. But I laughed.
Beat.
Then night came and then I was
panicked, because, again dark, I panicked again
I ran
scratching there was lots of, scratching my skin
and I found my place where I live, and that’s where I live now, I live there.
And I do know my name so you can shut, you can...
I live there. It’s
mine, I
live
there.
Adam.
I’m not coming back.
Beat.
It’s Adam.
LEAH: How’ve you been living?
ADAM: In the hedge.
LEAH: No, how?
What have you been eating?
ADAM: You can eat anything. I eat things.
Nothing dead, I don’t
insects, grass, leaves, all good, but nothing, I caught a rabbit once and ate that, its fur was soft, warm, but nothing, I found a dead bird and ate some of that but it made me sick so nothing, nothing dead, that’s the rule, nothing
Beat.
What?
JAN: Jesus Christ.
MARK: He’s lost it.
JAN: He’s off his –
LEAH: Okay. Now things are strange. Things are really, really strange, Phil. I mean with the greatest of respect, Adam, you are supposed to be dead.
ADAM: Dead?
LEAH: And I mean, there’s been a service, there’s been appeals, there’s been weeping... They’re naming the science lab after him, for God’s sake.
ADAM: I’m...dead?
BRIAN starts giggling.
CATHY: Shut up.
ADAM: Am I dead?
LEAH: I mean now we really have, I don’t know how we’re gonna get out of this one because now we really have
ADAM: I thought I was dead.
LOU: You’re not dead.
CATHY: (To BRIAN.) If you don’t shut up you’ll be dead.
BRIAN: I love this! This is great! Mates!
JAN: What are we going to do?
MARK: Yeah, what are we going to do?
LEAH: We’re gonna, right, we’re gonna... What are we gonna do?
PHIL: Adam?
ADAM: Yes?
PHIL: Do you want to come back?
ADAM: What?
PHIL: With us.
ADAM: I
PHIL: Or do you want to stay? Are you happy? Here?
LEAH: Phil –
PHIL: Shut up! Do you want to stay?
Pause. ADAM thinks. Looks at PHIL.
PHIL smiles, kindly. Nods.
Brian? Take Adam back to his hedge. Then come back to us.
BRIAN: This is great!
BRIAN takes ADAM off. They all stare at PHIL.
LEAH: What’s going on?
PHIL: (To MARK and JAN.) Go back home. Don’t say anything to anybody about this. You too, Lou.
LEAH: Phil...?
JAN: Are we going to be in trouble.
PHIL: If you go now and you say nothing to no-one about this, you won’t be in trouble.
JAN thinks. Nods to MARK. They go.
LOU stands there, unsure.
LOU: What about...
What about Cathy?
PHIL goes to her. Places a hand on her shoulder, smiles, warm, reassuring.
PHIL: Everything is going to be fine.
Beat. She goes off after JAN and MARK.
LEAH: Phil, what are you doing?
What? But he’s...
Beat.
Phil, he’s off his head. He’s injured, he’s been living off insects for weeks, he’s insane Phil, he needs help.
PHIL: He’s happy.
LEAH: He’s not happy, he’s mad.
PHIL: He doesn’t want to come back.
LEAH: Because he’s mad! We can’t leave him here, I mean that’s not, are you serious? Are you seriously –
Alright, yes, there’ll be –
Phil, this is insane. I mean I’ve never, but this, because, alright, whatever, but this is actually insane. We can’t just leave him up here.
PHIL: I’m in charge. Everyone is happier. What’s more important: one person or everyone?
She stares at him.
LEAH: It’s Adam, Phil, Adam! We used to go to his birthday parties, he used to have that cheap ice cream and we used to take the piss, remember?
PHIL: If he comes back our lives are ruined. He can’t come back, Cathy.
LEAH: Oh, great, now you’re talking to Cathy, like, I’m not, I’m not, because you don’t like what I say and now it’s Cathy, you sit there and you say nothing for years and suddenly now you’re chatting with Cathy.
PHIL: Cathy?
LEAH: Let’s, come on, let’s, it won’t be that bad, it’ll be, we can explain. We can talk. We can go through the whole thing and make them understand –
PHIL: (To CATHY.) Do you understand?
LEAH: Understand what?
CATHY: Yeah. I do.
LEAH: Oh great, now you’re at it.
BRIAN comes back, giggling.
(Pointing at BRIAN.) I mean I might as well talk to him for all the sense I’m getting. Phil, we can’t do this, I mean what if he comes down next week, next year, in ten years, even?
PHIL: Take Brian.
CATHY: Okay.
BRIAN: We going somewhere?
LEAH: No, no, wait, you can’t, no, this is... Cathy?
PHIL: Make a game of it.
BRIAN: We gonna play a game?
PHIL: You and Cathy are going to play a game. With Adam
BRIAN: Brilliant!
CATHY: How?
LEAH: How what? What are you, will you please talk to me as if
PHIL: Brian?
BRIAN: Who?
PHIL: Come here.
BRIAN goes to PHIL.
PHIL: I’m gonna do an experiment with this plastic bag. I want you to stay still while I do this experiment.
BRIAN: I love experiments! Will there be fire?
PHIL: (Emptying his carrier bag.) No. No fire.
Stay still.
PHIL places the bag over BRIAN’s head.
BRIAN: It’s all gone dark.
He pulls the handles back around his neck and to opposite corners, making it airtight.
BRIAN is giggling inside, looking around and breathing the plastic in and out of his mouth.
Bit stuffy.
PHIL looks to CATHY. She nods.
This is great!
LEAH: Phi... Phil?
PHIL takes the bag off.
BRIAN: That was great!
PHIL: You just do what Cathy says.
BRIAN: I am brilliant at doing what people say.
 
; LEAH: No! Stop, don’t, don’t, Phil, don’t, what are you doing, what are you...
PHIL: He’s dead. everyone thinks he’s dead. What difference will it make?
She stares at him.
LEAH: But he’s not dead. He’s alive.
CATHY: Come on Brian.
BRIAN: This is brilliant.
LEAH: No, Cathy, don’t, stop, Cathy...?
But she goes, taking BRIAN with her. LEAH turns to PHIL.
Phil?
Phil?
Please!
Please, Phil!
But PHIL just walks away.
* * *
A Field. PHIL and LEAH, sitting
Complete silence.
PHIL takes out a pack of Starburst.
Opens.
Has one.
Chews. Thinks.
He offers one to LEAH.
She takes it.
She begins to quietly cry.
Crying, she puts the sweet in her mouth and begins to chew.
PHIL puts his arm around her.
Suddenly she stops chewing and spits the sweet out.
Gets up, stares at PHIL.
Storms off.
PHIL: Leah?
Leah?
Four
A Street. JAN and MARK.
JAN: Gone?
MARK: Yeah.
JAN: Gone?
MARK: Yeah.
JAN: What, she’s gone?
MARK: Yes.
Beat.
JAN: When?
MARK: Last week.
JAN: Where?
MARK: Dunno. No-one knows.
JAN: No-one knows?
MARK: Well, not no-one, I mean someone must, but no-one I know knows.
JAN: I mean she must’ve gone somewhere.
MARK: Moved schools. That’s what people are saying.
JAN: Moved schools?
MARK: Yeah.
JAN: Just like that?
MARK: Just like that.
JAN: Without saying anything?
MARK: Without saying a thing
Pause.
JAN: Oh.
MARK: Yeah.
JAN: Oh.
MARK: Yeah.
JAN: Oh.
MARK: I know.
JAN: Does Phil know?
* * *
A Field. RICHARD sits with PHIL.
PHIL is not eating. He stares into the distance.
Silence.
Suddenly RICHARD gets up.
RICHARD: Phil, Phil, watch this! Phil, watch me, watch me, Phil!
He walks on his hands.
See? See what I’m doing? Can you see, Phil?
He collapses. PHIL doesn’t even look at him.
RICHARD gets up, brushes himself down, and sits with PHIL.
Silence.
When are you going to come back?
PHIL shrugs?
Come on, Phil. Come back to us. What do you want to sit up here for? In this field? Don’t you get bored? Don’t you get bored sitting here, every day, doing nothing?
No answer.
Everyone’s asking after you. You know that? Everyone’s saying ‘where’s Phil?’ ‘what’s Phil up to?’ ‘when’s Phil going to come down from that stupid field?’ ‘wasn’t it good when Phil was running the show?’ What do you think about that? What do you think about everyone asking after you?
No answer.
Aren’t you interested? Aren’t you interested in what’s going on?
No answer.
John Tate’s found God. Yeah, Yeah I know. He’s joined the Jesus Army, he runs round the shopping centre singing and trying to give people leaflets. Danny’s doing work experience at a dentist’s. He hates it. Can’t stand the cavities, he says when they open their mouths sometimes it feels like you’re going to fall in.
Pause.
Brian’s on stronger and stronger medication. They caught him staring at a wall and drooling last week. It’s either drooling or giggling. Keeps talking about earth. I think they’re going to section him. Cathy doesn’t care. She’s too busy running things. You wouldn’t believe how thing’s have got, Phil. She’s insane. She cut a first year’s finger off, that’s what they say anyway.
Doesn’t that bother you? Aren’t you even bothered?
No answer.
Lou’s her best friend, now. Dangerous game. I feel sorry for Lou. And Jan and Mark have taken up shoplifting, they’re really good at it, get you anything you want.
Phil?
Phil!
He shakes PHIL by the shoulders. Slowly PHIL looks at him.
You can’t stay here forever. When are you going to come down?
PHIL says nothing. RICHARD lets go.
PHIL goes back to staring at nothing.
Pause.
Nice up here.
As I was coming up here there was this big wind of fluff. You know, this big wind of fluff, like dandelions, but smaller, and tons of them, like fluffs of wool or cotton, it was really weird, I mean it just came out of nowhere, this big wind of fluff, and for a minute I thought I was in a cloud, Phil. Imagine that. Imagine being inside a cloud, but with space inside it as well, for a second, as I was coming up here I felt like I was an alien in a cloud. But really felt it. And in that second, Phil, I knew that there was life on other planets. I knew we weren’t alone in the universe, I didn’t just think it or feel it, I knew it, I know it, it was as if the universe was suddenly shifting and giving me a glimpse, this vision that could see everything, just for a fraction of a heartbeat of a second. But I couldn’t see who they were or what they were doing or how they were living.
How do you think they’re living, Phil?
How do you think they’re living?
No answer.
There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on Brighton beach.
Pause.
Come back, Phil.
Phil?
No answer. They sit in silence.
End.
Dennis Kelly, DNA
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