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• Media stories about young people

  • Most are negative
  • Most commonly about crime, gangs, education, and social exclusion
  • Young offenders are likely to receive negative coverage
  • The media often reports stories in a sensational way
  • The media does not always represent reality
  • Most young people feel the media represents them as antisocial and a group to be feared
• James Bulger was a boy from Kirkby, Merseyside, England, who was murdered on 12 February 1993, at the age of two. He was abducted, tortured and killed by two ten-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables
• 'Hoodies, louts, scum': how media demonises teenagers: 'The portrayal of teenage boys as "yobs" in the media has made the boys wary of other teenagers, according to new research.'
• Figures show more than half of the stories about teenage boys in national and regional newspapers in the past year (4,374 out of 8,629) were about crime. The word most commonly used to describe them was "yobs" (591 times), followed by "thugs" (254 times), "sick" (119 times) and "feral" (96 times).
• Other terms often used to describe teenage boys

  • hoodie
  • louts
  • heartless
  • evil
  • frightening
  • scum
  • monsters
  • inhuman
  • threatening
• Woods 1 summary


  1. John Tate, Lou and Danny stressing about Adam "death"

  2. John is the leader of the group and tries to reassure the others

  3. Danny is perceived as a goody two shoes, worried about his future as a dentist

  4. Richard enters, with Cathy and Brian, Cathy grinning, Brian crying

  5. Richard and John Tate have a confrontation which results in the members of the Gang turning on each other, but it is quickly resolved

  6. Jan and Mark enter and Mark confesses to "killing" Adam

  7. Phil moves from his quiet state and becomes a criminal mastermind, directing everyone to cover up the murder, making a point of leaving no DNA
• Lou: 'screwed'
• Richard: 'you shouldn't threaten me, John'
• Brian: 'I think we should tell someone'
• Mark: 'we went up the grille'
• Mark: 'and someone's pegged a stone at him'
• John Tate: 'dead. He's dead.'
• Phil: 'that will be a DNA nightmare'
• Staging ideas


  • Use in the round staging to throw the audience into the characters positions, accentuate the intensity of the scene by keeping the audience more enclosed, build pressure and containment to create a sense of claustrophobia and panic
• Set design


  • Use a net or cover of different fabrics stitched together to look like leaves and dirt on wood floor, weld together around 10 shopping trolleys to act as a podium or a playground for Brian, make rocks or stamps out of easy to move material
• John Tate's costume


  • Polyester shirt sleeves rolled up, button or two undone, shirt untucked, muddy trainers instead of school shoes, no coat or jacket to portray him as the boss and alpha of the group
• Brian's costume


  • Oversized beige hoodie to convey lack of strength and power, mud on trousers to betray vulnerability, hiding in hoodie as if scared
• Cathy's costume


  • Skirt rolled up very high, shirt untucked, black puffer jacket to show obsession with being trendy
• Jan and Mark's costume


  • Trousers with shirts untucked, Mark wears black hoodie with hood up, Jan has sleeves rolled up
• Richard's costume


  • Dresses similarly to John Tate but wears a jacket to portray him as threatening but not as the alpha male
• Leah's costume


  • Wears school knee high socks, doesn't roll up skirt, may wear a raincoat to set her apart from the edgier characters
• Props


  • Danny has a mobile phone and a full school backpack, Phil has a large lunch box filled with multiple snacks
• Lighting


  • Green wash with foliage pattern gobo at start of woods scene, cross fade to dark blue lighting state with hard edged spotlight on Mark when he talks about Adam's death, then return to original light state
• Cathy: '"I used violence.... I threatened to gouge one of his eyes out"'
• Phil: '"Hello Adam"'
• Brian: '"Do you ever feel like the trees are watching you?"'
• Cathy: '"He's a mess"'
• Adam: '"Adam, it's Adam, my name's Adam"'
• Leah: '"I mean with the greatest respect, Adam, you are supposed to be dead"'
• Adam: '"I'm... Dead?"'
• Phil: '"I'm in charge. Everyone is happier. What's more important; one person or everyone?"'
• Phil: '"I'm gonna do an experiment with a plastic bag. I want you to stay still while I do this experiment"'
• Phil: '"He's dead. Everyone thinks he's dead. What difference will it make?"'
• Leah: '"No, Cathy, don't, stop, Cathy....?"'
• Phil: '"Everything is going to be fine"'
• Lou:: 'He's gonna go to prison.'
• Vocal delivery of the quote

  • Strong and precise tone
  • Vocal emphasis on the word "prison" with more volume and articulation
  • Pause after the word "go" to suggest exasperation in struggling to get the point across to an indifferent Leah
• Vocal delivery: 'Pause before the word "DNA" and speak the word "evidence" with a chuckle of surprise or disbelief'
• Vocal delivery: 'Deliver the words "pop down the station" with an aggressive and sarcastic tone, with particular emphasis on the "p" sound'
• Purpose of the vocal delivery

  To show Richard's sense of incredulity, as if he cannot believe the luck or coincidence of what has happened