The story of ‘Punch’ on Broadway is hitting home around the world

Based on a true story, Tony nominee James Graham’s play about fatal mistakes and forgiveness opens concurrently in New York and in London's West End this fall.

James Graham’s Punch, a new play about fatal mistakes and second chances, is poised to hit hard for audiences. Doubly so, since the drama debuts in two global cities at once this fall: in New York at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway on September 9, and at the Apollo Theatre in London’s West End two weeks later.

“When I first discovered this real-life story, it just completely broke me,” said the Tony Award-nominated Ink playwright from Nottingham, the English city where Punch is set and had its world premiere last year. “It just felt like a real moral fable for our times.”

Based on Jacob Dunne’s memoir Right From Wrong, the drama traces how Dunne accidentally killed a stranger, 28-year-old trainee paramedic James Hodgkinson, with a single punch in 2011. Only 19 at the time, Dunne went to prison and turned his life around after meeting Hodgkinson's parents as part of a restorative justice program.

“I find it so overwhelmingly moving that two parents who lost their son in a moment of violence could possibly reach out to the person who did that to them and try to pursue a different path to deal with their grief,” Graham told New York Theatre Guide.

Dunne now campaigns for restorative justice, a process in which offenders and victims come together to rebuild trust, foster accountability, and promote healing and reconciliation among community members. While it’s not a docudrama, Punch aims to make people “think about the world we live in,” said director Adam Penford, who made his Broadway debut in 2012 as an associate director on One Man, Two Guv’nors.

While Penford works in New York, his own associate director guides the West End production, which features the same cast he worked with in Nottingham and at the Young Vic, an Off-West End theatre in London. “It’s based on historic events where real-life characters appear. But the creative team have theatricalized it so much [...] it lives and breathes on its own terms,” the director added.

One of the strengths of Punch, however, is that the real Dunne has been part of the creative process the whole way, working on the script with Graham and engaging with the show's casts in person and online. Hodgkinson’s parents also spent hours with Graham in person and spoke with the Broadway cast virtually.

“We met Jacob Dunne over Zoom,” said Piter Marek, who plays a detective and a professor. “We talked about how we’re treating boys and men and the justice system in America and globally.”

Camila Canó-Flaviá, who plays Dunne’s girlfriend and a restorative justice facilitator, traveled to Nottingham, where she and Dunne toured the city on bikes. It was eye-opening to see “where all the events went down,” she said. “That all really feeds into the textures of playing characters.”

“It’s just been a huge privilege to work with the real-life people,” Graham echoed. “The most moving, rewarding part of this process has been, actually, to see them witness the impact it’s having on audiences.”

And on the actors. The seven-person Broadway cast also features two-time Tony winner Victoria Clark (Kimberly Akimbo, The Light in the Piazza) as the victim’s mom and Dunne’s grandmother. She appreciates the play’s ambitions, which are underscored by its synchronous openings in the world's two most prestigious theatre hubs.

“It does feel like we’re part of a global movement toward awareness of random violence,” Clark said. “And, more importantly, or equally importantly, an awareness of how difficult conversations about grace and forgiveness can lead to monumental change.

“One person changing, one heart lifted, actually has a tremendous ripple effect, and can move very quickly through a community,” she continued. “In Jacob Dunne’s case, the pivot he’s made in his life has rippled out to tremendous effect.”

Sam Robards (The 39 Steps) admires the play’s unflinching exploration of the reality of violence while offering a heartening glimpse of how, he said, “we can possibly move forward through our lives in some way after events like this.”

He hopes one takeaway for audiences is a level of consciousness-raising and action. “Maybe give each other a little more grace, maybe listen a little more, talk a little less,” he said. “Just be a little bit more open to other people and their experiences.”

Will Harrison, who plays Dunne, said the play has inspired introspection. Among the questions that arose: What is your definition of justice? How do you forgive? What does forgiveness look like for different people? “They are really universal questions and through a very specific story, they’re all brought up,” said Harrison.

The play’s creative team understands a specific set of circumstances can reveal human truths that transcend culture, time, and place. “Really,” Penford said, “it’s a story about being a parent, about being a son, about growing up, about going through the education system, about the challenges of life.” Punch may be rooted in Nottingham, but you don't have to be from there for those themes to hit home.

Get Punch Broadway tickets now.

Learn more about Punch in the West End on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Gillian Russo contributed reporting for this story.

Photo credit: Punch at the Young Vic in London. (Photos by Marc Brenner)