James Graham’s Punch is a blistering piece of theatre that exemplifies the playwright’s extraordinary ability to transform real-life events into urgent, thought-provoking drama. Based on Jacob Dunne’s memoir Right from Wrong, the play revisits the shocking true story of the single punch that changed two lives forever: when a teenage Jacob Dun struck James Hodgkinson in Nottingham in 2011, an impulsive act that led to Hodgkinson’s tragic and unintended death. It is from this painful, complicated truth that Graham has fashioned a play of astonishing humanity, one that wrestles with themes of guilt, forgiveness, responsibility and redemption.

What makes Punch so powerful is its refusal to sensationalise the incident or flatten its moral complexity. Graham’s writing situates the audience inside a story many will remember only as a headline – “One-Punch Death” – and instead asks us to see the people behind it. He draws from Dunne’s own testimony in Right from Wrong with honesty and sensitivity, presenting not just the devastation of the Hodgkinson family, but also the messy, uneven path of a young man reckoning with his actions and searching for a way to make amends. The play is unsparing, yet never without compassion, showing how a single moment of violence reverberates across families, communities and, ultimately, an entire society.

The production wisely leans into restraint. The staging is pared back, allowing the words and performances to carry the weight of the story. Silence is used as effectively as dialogue, and the spare design heightens the intensity of the moral questions being asked. Graham’s script is unflinching in its detail, but also careful to avoid sentimentality. He presents the truth without adornment and trusts his cast to bring its emotional power to the surface.

And what a cast it is. David Shields delivers an extraordinary performance, embodying Jacob with an astonishing combination of toughness and vulnerability. He captures the character’s anger, shame and eventual self-awareness with subtlety, offering a deeply human portrayal that avoids cliché at every turn. Alec Boaden provides a commanding counterbalance, giving the production its energy and sharpness while revealing moments of tenderness and complexity that stop the story from ever tipping into didacticism. Julie Hesmondhalgh, one of the UK’s most consistently brilliant stage actors, is the production’s emotional heart. Her performance radiates compassion, grounding the play with a warmth that makes the moral stakes all the more devastating. She embodies not only the personal grief of the Hodgkinson family but also the possibility of empathy in the face of tragedy.

What is remarkable about Punch is that it never settles for easy answers. Graham resists the temptation to frame Jacob’s story as a straightforward journey from villainy to redemption. Instead, the play inhabits the grey areas – the anger of a community, the devastation of a family, the awkward, imperfect attempts at restorative justice. In doing so, Punchasks the audience to consider their own judgments: how do we as a society deal with harm, punishment and forgiveness? And can true redemption ever be possible?

There are moments of humour too, and they are handled with great care. Graham understands that the audience needs space to breathe, and those lighter touches never undercut the seriousness of the subject. Instead, they remind us that even in stories of unimaginable pain, humanity persists.

Ultimately, Punch is an unmissable triumph. By taking a true event – Jacob Dunne’s single, devastating act of violence, and the ripple effects that followed – and reframing it through theatre, James Graham forces us to confront questions that are as relevant today as they were in 2011. With extraordinary performances from David Shields, Alec Boaden and Julie Hesmondhalgh, this production becomes more than a play: it is an act of witness, a work of empathy, and a vital conversation starter. Punch doesn’t just tell a story; it challenges us to see the people behind it, and to reckon with what justice and forgiveness can really mean.

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