peer pressure and group dynamics

Leah lacks friendships although she is part of the gang

Leah: ‘I mean alright, I haven’t got friends’ (act 1)

John Tate uses fear to provide ‘protection’ for the gang

John Tate: ‘no one bothers you and everyone respects you and everyone’s scared of you and who made that,’ (act 1)

John Tate desires people to agree with him to inflate his status as leader

John Tate: ‘ then you’re on your own side, which is very […] silly and dangerous’ (act 1)

Leah emphasises how being on the outside of the group is scary

Leah: ‘ A chimp’ ll just find itself on the outside of a group and before he knows what’s happening it’s being hounded to death by the others’ (act 1)

Brian is already viewed as the weak link of the group

Phil: ‘tell him that you found Brian crying in the toilets’ (act 1)

Leah reflects on how willingly the group climb the social ladder at any and all costs

Leah: ‘They kill and sometimes torture each other to find a better position within the social structure’ (act 1)

Phil uses threats as a form of peer pressure to keep the group under his control

Phil: ‘If you don’t help us we’ll kill you’ (act 2)

Phil uses leadership to pressure everyone into sacrificing safety for the entire group

Phil: ‘ I’m in charge. Everyone is happier. What’s more important: one person or everyone?’ (act 3)

Leah eventually rejects Phil’s constant use of peer pressure

‘He offers one to Leah. She takes it […] Suddenly she stops chewing and spits the sweet out’ (act 3)

Due to Adam’s lower social class he was belittled and an ‘easy target’

Leah: ‘We used to go to his birthday parties, he used to have that cheap ice cream and we used to take the piss’ (act 3)

Dennis Kelly reiterates how fear gradually increase the further away from a group you get

‘ if you were close to the centre you were safe, but toward the outskirts was terrible, and being on the outside was really frightening’