B'way Review: Punch

Will Harrison (center) in Punch.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

It’s going to be very difficult to resist writing the obvious praise for Punch, James Graham’s hard-hitting British import presented by Manhattan Theater Club in association with Nottingham Playhouse on Broadway. Yes, it’s a haymaker, it’s a gut-punch, it will send you reeling and stunned out of the theater. But these accolades seem like hollow cliches compared to the visceral, emotionally rending experience of this show.

Based on Right from Wrong, the memoir written by Jacob Dunne the main real-life character in the play, Punch centers on the life-changing impact that a single blow struck in blind, unreasoning rage can have. Jacob (Will Harrison in a career-making Broadway debut) is an angry, working-class young man in England’s suffocating public housing jungle. During a marathon pub crawl, he punches a random stranger which results in a smashed skull, brain bleeding, and death. In cinematic terms, playwright Graham (who previously expertly covered Rupert Murdoch’s domination of the scandal press in Ink) and director Adam Penford explore the ramifications of the harrowing incident, both from Jacob’s point of view and that of Joan and David, the devastated parents of the victim (Victoria Clark and Sam Robards in heartbreaking, multilayered performances).

Victoria Clark and Sam Robards in Punch.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

On Anna Fleischle’s stark, drab set depicting Jacob’s glum environment and with the aide of Robbie Butler’s chameleon-like lighting, the talented cast trips back and forth through time and across multiple locations to chart the painstaking journey of the assailant and the parents. Penford’s imaginative staging and Graham’s sensitive script flow easily from scene to scene, recreating council flats, courtrooms, prisons and the interior of the characters.

In the opening, Jacob is telling his story to both the audience and a recovery therapy group (the rest of the company plays multiple roles with dexterity). Harrison who is making his Broadway debut after numerous film and TV credits, is quite remarkable in altering his body language, vocal tone, and attitude as he switches from pre-punch Jacob (aggressive, brutal, impulsive, full of testosterone) to post-punch (reflective, regretful, polite). His body shifts from a fighting stance (a coiled spring about to pounce) to a relaxed posture. His voice slows down and raises an octave. He’s ready to contemplate his actions rather than attack. This is just the beginning of a tour de force performance. Harrison makes Jacob’s arduous voyage of self-discovery painfully real every step of the way. You can almost feel the rush of adrenaline he gets from fisticuffs and drugs as well as his soul-ripping anguish when he finally meets Joan and David in one of the most moving confrontation scenes in recent New York theatrical memory.

Sam Robards, Victoria Clark, Camila Canó-Flaviá,
and Will Harrison in Punch.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

We go with Jacob as he recounts his chaotic childhood and adolescence, his disruptive youth and his mind-numbing cycling through the court and prison systems. Graham skillfully weaves in the parallel experiences of Joan and David as they go through the stages of grief, conclude they can’t move past it, and ultimately decide to contact Jacob through a counseling program. Clark is achingly moving as the mother whose nursing experience makes her son’s fatal condition all the more harrowing. The simple way she brushes back tears while listening to Jacob’s side of the story speaks volumes. Robards is equally heartbreaking as warring emotions play across his features. He is caught between rage at Jacob and wanting to forgive him.

Will Harrison and Lucy Taylor in Punch.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

Clark and Robards also give full life to smaller parts (Jacob’s grandmother and a brutish neighbor) as do Lucy Taylor, Camila Canó-Flaviá, Cody Kostro, and Piter Marek in their multiple role assignments. Punch is that rare example of a stunning lead performance blending seamlessly with an outstanding ensemble. To re-coin a cliched phrase I’m sure many critics will echo, it’s a knockout.

Sept. 29—Nov. 2. Manhattan Theater Club in association with Nottingham Playhouse at Samuel J. Friedman Theater, 261 W. 47th St., NYC. Running time: two hours and 20 mins. including intermission. telecharge.com.