Will Harrison stars in impactful Broadway play based on real-life tragedy

In the furious flurry of our day-to-day existence, it’s easy to forget that one singular action has the power to change your life forever. No Broadway production highlights that fact clearer than Punch, the latest from British playwright James Graham (Ink, Tammy Faye) which tells the tragic and true story of the night Jacob Dunne and James Hodgkinson crossed paths in a Nottingham town square — and how forgiveness in the face of unspeakable anger, loss, and grief may just save us all. 

The play, which opened for a limited engagement at the Samuel J Friedman Theatre this evening, is adapted from Dunne’s 2022 memoir Right From Wrong, and follows his younger self, played superbly by Will Harrison (Daisy Jones & the Six, Manhunt), as he tells a support group of the night that he killed Hodgkinson with a single punch. Bold and deeply human, Punch is initially a bit slow on the wind up, but its stellar cast help weave together an almost unbelievable story of compassion and empathy in its second act that left many theatergoers sniffling in their seats. 

As part of his retelling, Jacob takes his fellow support group members — and, by extension, the audience — back to his early childhood days living in a housing estate called the Meadows with his single mom and younger brother. Struggling with schoolwork (and later diagnosed with dyslexia, autism, and ADHD), Jacob ditches his studies to begin pushing drugs and hanging out with the rabble-rousers residing on his block. His entire life changes on a seemingly normal night out one summer, when his best mate Raf (Cody Kostro) calls to notify him that things are kicking off in the town square and that he’s needed immediately. 

Heavily inebriated and with several different drugs racing through his system, 19-year-old Jacob storms into the confrontation and clocks an unknown man hard, sending him to the ground. When the man, James, is pronounced dead nine days later, Jacob pleads guilty to manslaughter and receives 30 months in prison — a sentencing that feels much too light for James’ parents, Joan (Tony winner Victoria Clark) and David (Sam Robards). After a failed appeal and Jacob’s subsequent release, Joan and David try a new approach: restorative justice, which allows them to connect with Jacob to ask him all of their lingering questions about that fateful night. Surprisingly, Jacob agrees, and the unlikely trio find themselves embarking on a terrifying, heartbreaking, and, ultimately, healing journey together. 

With such heavy subject material, it can’t be stressed just how much this production hinges upon the success of its Jacob. Harrison, in his star-making Broadway debut, is essentially tasked with performing three separate roles all at once: deftly delivering weighty monologues directly to the audience as its narrator, evoking the brash bravado of an invincible young lad in Jacob’s younger years, and the grief-addled and painfully self-aware Jacob that he grows up to become.

Harrison pops in and out of these different iterations of the characters seamlessly, dropping Midlands slang in his baby blue trackies one moment and then fiercely fighting back tears the next. It’s clear that he takes the material seriously, and his performance is the true highlight of the show. 

As James’ parents, Clark and Robards bring an unimaginable sense of grief and humanity to their respective roles. While they act as a singular unit in their encounters with Jacob, Graham’s writing allows both parents the space to process their loss onstage — and they do so very differently. Clark cycles through the five stages of grief throughout her performance, snapping at a nurse over the treatment of her son one moment, and then breaking everyone’s hearts by wistfully telling stories of James’ daredevil antics the next. Robards, meanwhile, brings a subdued heartache to David, who was present when James was hit and still manages to find compassion for his son’s killer. When all three stars are on stage together, Punch truly sings. 

Their performances are bolstered by Robbie Butler’s lighting design, which make the darkened skies of the play’s Nottingham backdrop come to life in vivid, exploding colors on Guy Fawkes Night and New Year’s Day. Its two-story circular set piece, created by scenic and costume designer Anna Fleischle, is simple yet effective, managing to evoke the Trent Bridge that winds through Nottingham and the hardened concrete blocks of the Meadows and Jacob’s prison.

Still, Punch has moments that don’t quite gel. Director Adam Penford lets the first act run for a smidge too long, focusing on exposition-heavy monologues about Jacob’s early years in favor of digging into the real emotional core of the play which resides in its second act (he also never returns to Jacob’s support group meeting held at the beginning of the play). There are also several lines of dialogue that feel a bit too on the nose at times, and, despite best intentions, some Midlands accents found themselves veering into distinctly American territory along its two-and-a-half-hour-long runtime. That being said, there is a Colin the Caterpillar cake in the production, so it definitely earns back some British believability in my book. 

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Theatrical productions that center upon real-life events often struggle with wanting to tie everything up into a pretty little bow. In reality, Punch‘s story is far from over: Jacob is only now in his 30s, and he and Joan are advocates for the power of restorative justice and its ability to keep convicts from re-offending and helping victims’ families to heal. While the play still leans into a bit of that theatrical sweetness, it does well to remind theatergoers that time can’t heal all wounds, especially when they’re inflicted as deep as the ones between Jacob, Joan, and David.

Still, Punch‘s moving message about the true power of connection and understanding in the wake of unthinkable tragedy is one that is desperately needed these days. Grade: B