(seen at the afternoon performance on 8th March 2025)
Jacob Dunne (David Shields) took the wrong path as a teenager on a tough estate. In 2011, on a night out, he waded into a pub crowd to help a friend settle a pub fight. At random, Dunne landed a single punch on 28-year-old paramedic James Hodgkinson.
Hodgkinson died later in hospital from a bleed on the brain. Dunne was “grassed up” by someone wrongfully accused of the crime. He got 30 months in a “young offenders’ institution”. Another pathway choice closes the first act.
Second act, “restorative justice” – and what happens when Dunne is offered contact with Joan (Julie Hesmondhalgh) and David (Tony Hirst), the bereaved parents.
James Graham adapts Jacob Dunne’s book into a play which, for the first time ever, caused the Monkey to make use of the provided "chillout" space after the show.
A pivotal penultimate scene considers forgiveness. Writing, performance and philosophy combine to break emotionally all present.
Anna Fleischle once again grasps the need for an exceptional setting. Concrete council estate bridge with vanishing black tunnel, and a backdrop of the real estate and court dome. Robbie Butler produces Olympic Rings with the lighting, Alexandra Faye Braithwaite’s music amps up the tension to almost unbearable levels.
Adam Penfold (with associate director Omar Khan) allows each actor to explore the richness of emotions contained in Graham’s script, yet, thanks to movement director and consultant Leanne Pinder and Lynne Page and fight director Kev McCurdy, nothing feels staged even when obviously formal moments of therapy offer potential for unreality.
Seldom off stage, Shields grows up before our eyes and regresses just as quickly as required. He is the troubled boy, the man seeking redemption, eager student and prison inmate at the tensing or relaxation of a few muscles.
Julie Hesmondhalgh matches and sometimes even edges him for credibility. An impossible-to-answer question unless you have been through it personally could make for a false performance. Somehow, Hesmondhalgh gives us confidence in her words over the entire play, enough that we understand her emotional reasoning instinctively, so that she has no need to overtly express anything.
She is equalled by Tony Hirst. Male emotions, rationality from the man who was there to see his son attacked. Taciturn made fully rounded by some means the Monkey can only admire, not explain.
Very fine work in multiple other roles is also provided by Shalisha James-Davis as co-ordinator of R.J. Nicola, and love interest Clare (with no I).
Emma Pallant has probably the most adaptable hair on the South Bank, switching between Jacob’s mother, probation officer and therapist at the drop of a clip.
Completing the company with impressive skill as brother, friend and police officer, Alec Boaden has a fine moment with exam results – the Monkey noting with delight the authentic paper used.
There is a philosophy among Holocaust survivors which applies here. "They are not here to forgive, we cannot say on their behalf." With that said, we do have to allow that Mr Dunne does plenty to at least attempt some form of atonement for his past.
This must surely reach a West End theatre soon, current cast intact. Julie Hesmondhalgh needs a damehood recognising a career pinnacle. The rest of the team on and off stage will have to settle for Oliviers.
Most important of all, James Hodgkinson’s story has a chance to be told, the dangers of one-punch spelled out to the broadest public possible. This alone is worth everything.
5 stars, standing ovation given.