Packing a redemptive Punch

A play about parents meeting the man who killed their son is deeply affecting and an Irish import deserves to be described as a modern classic, but the new direction of the National Theatre gets off to a shaky start

- By Michael Billington

I HAVE finally caught up with James Graham's Punch. It started life at Nottingham Playhouse in May 2024, moved to the Young Vic and is now installed at the Apollo in Shaftesbury Avenue, WC1. I can only report that I found it emotionally overwhelming. Based on real-life events, it is a rare modern play that deals with the possibility of personal redemption.

Mr Graham accurately charts the basic facts of the story. In 2011, a young Nottingham tearaway, Jacob Dunne, who was high on drink and drugs, threw a punch at a 28-year-old trainee paramedic, James Hodgkinson, that killed him. The perpetrator was convicted of manslaughter, but served only 14 months of his original four-year sentence. What happened on his release was remarkable. The victim's parents, although appalled by the brevity of the sentence, were encouraged to make contact with their son's killer in order to find answers to their many questions about his motives. Through a system known as 'restorative justice', communication was first made through an intermediary before the baffled parents finally met him.

"That confrontation is one of the most moving scenes you will ever witness'

That confrontation is one of the most moving scenes you will ever witness. What is impressive is that Mr Graham tells the story without a trace of sentimentality. No attempt is made to disguise the ugliness of a modern gang culture where, as Dunne says, 'doing bad things creates good feelings'. At the same time, Mr Graham, whose work ranges from Dear England to the television series