'Punch' Broadway Review: When Violence Meets Forgiveness

The arrival of James Graham’s Punch on Broadway at this particular moment in time would seem thoroughly in keeping with horrific real-life events and the gut-wrenching zeitgeisty fictions like Adolescence that force us to confront violence, grief and whatever sort of forgiveness we can muster. But such groupings go only so far before each individual case begins to pull and strain in its particulars. While Punch certainly lacks the devastating power of, say, Adolescence, Graham’s play about the ripples of a single impulsive act is certainly not without its impact.

Opening tonight in a Manhattan Theatre Club production at Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (it’s also playing on London’s West End), Punch is based on a true story. The setting is Nottingham, England, from 2011