Punch review – James Graham’s tragic study of a fatal blow

Nottingham Playhouse
A teenager kills a trainee paramedic with a single strike on a night out in Nottingham in this deftly directed play based on a real story

Take note: this is not a play about the eponymous magazine specialising in scathing political satire, although such fare might more readily be expected from playwright James Graham. This is about the ripple effects of a single punch, thrown by a teenager on a night out, with fatal consequences.

Fabulously directed by Adam Penford, it is based on a memoir by Jacob Dunne who killed 28-year-old trainee paramedic James Hodgkinson in this way. Its Nottingham staging is relevant: it is where Graham and Jacob (played by David Shields) grew up, the latter on a council estate that slowly sucks him into gang culture.

At Nottingham Playhouse until 25 May.