Why a play about a fatal punch has gripped younger audiences and will tour schools

When thousands of schoolchildren came to see James Graham’s play Punch in the West End, the playwright, actors and producers were struck by one thing. Despite fears about social media eroding attention spans, the pupils were engrossed for two and a half hours and many stayed for Q&A sessions afterwards.“They were the most remarkable atmospheres we’ve ever experienced,” Graham said. “Julie [Hesmondhalgh, one of the actors] said it was one of the highlights of her performing career. You always hear that theatre doesn’t fit the TikTok generation, but we could tell these young people were completely connected to the themes of what it’s like to grow up as a teenager, to struggle, survive and evolve.”Julie Hesmondhalgh said playing the role of the grieving mother was one of the highlights of her career. Photograph: Marc BrennerNow Graham is working on an adaptation of the play for younger audiences, which will be taken into schools around the UK. The new version, produced out of Nottingham Playhouse in 2027, is being funded by profits and royalties from the West End run.“We want to tell the story directly in the young people’s own environments,” Graham said. “It’s about making the play more compact for a younger generation who will be seeing this between classes.”Punch tells the true story of Jacob Dunne, a Nottingham teenager whose single punch on a night out killed a stranger. Adapted from Dunne’s memoir, Right From Wrong, it follows the aftermath of that moment, including his time in prison and the extraordinary process of restorative justice with the victim’s parents.Jacob Dunne with Joan Scourfield, the mother of James Hodgkinson, who was killed by Dunne in Nottingham in 2011. Photograph: Fabio De Paola/The ObserverThe play has enjoyed a remarkable trajectory: opening at Nottingham Playhouse in May 2024, transferring to the Young Vic, and opening on Broadway and in the West End simultaneously. Its 10-week run at London’s Apollo theatre attracted 54,000 people, with school groups accounting for more than 10% (5,700) of the audiences.Graham said the story resonated powerfully with younger audiences. “There’s something about seeing a young man born into difficult circumstances and surrounded by unhealthy forces – gangs, in Jacob’s case – or, today, social media and peer pressure. The fact he turned his life around was incredibly inspiring.”He said Dunne’s experience also spoke to wider anxieties around masculinity. “There are unique challenges to being a young man in the 21st century that I didn’t have growing up.”James Graham said the fact Dunne turned his life around had inspired younger audiences. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The GuardianWhat struck Graham most was the story’s hopeful trajectory. “Jacob managed to turn his life around. He got educated, got a PhD, became a father. It was the incredible generosity of the parents of the man he killed reaching out to him that saved his life. And by responding to them, Jacob helped release them from their grief. It’s one of the most moving stories I’ve ever had the privilege to tell.”Graham used some of his profits to bring pupils from his former comprehensive school in Ashfield to the West End run. “I want the new version to reach schools with less access to the arts,” he said. “Drama helps generate empathy, and the fact it’s been stripped away so systemically is really worrying – especially at a cultural moment when we need infinitely more of that.”The producer Kate Pakenham said the profits and royalties from the West End run had gone into a catalyst fund for the schools version and they would be looking for additional partnership funding.“Teachers have told us Punch could be valuable across the curriculum, and with the practical and financial challenges many schools face, we wanted to take the play to them,” she said.The cast of Punch at the Young Vic. Photograph: Marc BrennerThe play’s success comes amid warnings of a sharp decline in productions of new work since the pandemic. Last month the British Theatre Consortium reported a 30% drop compared with 2019, although demand has risen in parallel, with new work accounting for 41.9% of theatre attendances in 2023, up from 29.9% in 2019.“There’s always going to be an appetite for new work but it’s not easy,” Graham said. “We have a storytelling crisis in our nation. We’re struggling to imagine the next chapter of our national life.“I’m not surprised if what we consistently do on our screens or on our stages is fall back on to nostalgic old stories, rather than have the capacity to imagine stories for the next generation.”