Punch: A Knockout Drama About Forgiveness

Punch | Apollo Theatre until 29 November

A knockout drama about grief, redemption and the power of forgiveness

Revisiting James Graham’s Punch, I was wondering if it had lost any of its impact from when I saw it at the Young Vic. I need not have been concerned: it has made the transfer to the West End with the same cast and, if anything, feels more urgent and important now than before.

It remains a powerful true-story drama and follows Jacob Dunne, a Nottingham teenager whose one impulsive punch on a Saturday night leads to the death of James Hodgkinson. Graham then takes us through Jacob’s painful journey of guilt, prison and redemption.

What makes Punch extraordinary is that James’s mother, Joan, and father, David, actually choose to meet Jacob through a restorative justice programme, leading all of them toward healing. I was again struck by how the play balances the horror of what happened with the human capacity for forgiveness without ever tipping over into mawkish sentimentality.

Director Adam Penford keeps its intensity throughout. The setting is deceptively simple, a bridge and a few chairs, but the staging and sound are dynamic enough to keep the story moving at a breathless pace.

Despite the heavy subject, the first act is gripping with the frantic energy of Jacob’s life, and the second plunges into the emotional heart of his meeting with Joan and David. The production never feels like a lecture about violence; rather, it stays focused on Jacob’s confusion and the parents’ heartbreak, making the big moments all the more powerful.

The cast is superb. David Shields as Jacob Dunne gives a raw, compelling performance — he perfectly captures Jacob’s cocky bravado and sudden, tearful vulnerability when things go wrong.

All the actors play multiple roles, Jacob’s friends, other family members, police, and they do it seamlessly, shifting from character to character in the blink of an eye. Julie Hesmondhalgh, as Joan, James’s mother, delivers grief that’s completely real and restrained. She is outstanding.

Graham is one of our most prolific writers, and what he’s able to do is deliver you chunks of information without it feeling like a lecture. All the information is delivered in the play, and we learn about how the restorative justice process works. Presenting this in dramatic form helps us understand Jacob’s journey, more so, I believe, than a documentary would achieve.

Core to the play is compassion and the ability to forgive and understand when other people have done terrible things, potentially leading them to redemption, which is both timely and moving, and has a resonance wider than the “one punch” that’s the subject of the play.

But above all, it is a very funny, moving and thrilling piece of theatre which packs an emotional wallop and feels like it may be James Graham’s most powerful play yet.

James Graham’s play is a gripping true-life drama of tragedy and forgiveness – moving, urgent and edged with unexpected humour.

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