The world of theatre has changed once again–one word titles are fashionable, and nuance is out. This production of Punch, a new play by James Graham, is based on the book Right From Wrong by Jacob Dunn and is being presented in association with the Nottingham Playhouse in England by the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York. The play has simultaneously just opened in London’s West End.
The cast
The one here in New York is directed by Adam Penford and features an excellent cast who play with great detail in Nottingham accents. It’s all very freeform and very difficult to follow. Scenery consists only of a black stage with lights that allow us to move anywhere instantaneously. This allows for great speed but not always great clarity. Scenes can be two lines long or four pages long, and when each is done, the actors simply turn and exit into the wings and move onto the next section. Though the accents sounded authentic, I understood very little. I was very moved by the adroit use of light and sound to keep the story moving, though I didn’t always know what the story was. It was like a very long journey–almost an endless one–where the leading character has finally faced the truth that he murdered someone without any intention by punching him in the face and running away.
Sam Robards, Victoria Clark, Camila Canó-Flavía, Will Harrison
By the end of two and a half hours of agonizing, the point seems to be that one can suffer from committing an unfair act, even though the motivation for it was not there. The audience at the Manhattan Theatre club seemed to be engaged, but I was never that way until the very end when I finally found myself actually moved by the central character who finally accepted his guilt for the punch that began his ordeal and that ended with the victim’s death–although two and a half hours of confusion is not the sort of input I need for a rich theatrical experience.