The world première of a play by Nottinghamshire-born writer James Graham is one of the highlights of the spring and summer season at Nottingham Playhouse.
Punch is based on the true story of Nottingham’s Jacob Dunne, who was gaoled for 30 months in 2011 after he hit and killed a cricket fan in an unprovoked attack in a Nottingham street.
Jacob Dunne commented, “it’s incredible to be working with James Graham for a production at Nottingham Playhouse where I enjoyed many memorable nights at the pantomime as a boy.
“Punch, unlike the panto, explores our often oversimplified understanding of a villain through a medium that redeemed me: dialogue.”
Directed by Nottingham Playhouse artistic director Adam Penford, Punch “asks important questions about toxic masculinity, class and our education system”.
According to Penford, Graham is “one of the best writers in the world”. His work includes Dear England, his look at Gareth Southgate’s time as manager of the England football team, and Quiz about the cheating Major Charles Ingram who was stripped of the top prize after being on the ITV show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?.
Punch will run at Nottingham Playhouse from Saturday 4 until Saturday 25 May 2024.
Penford added, “this is a challenging time for theatre, but Nottingham Playhouse is meeting that challenge head-on by continuing our commitment to staging bold new work and attracting the most dynamic theatre-makers to collaborate with us.”
The season will also feature David Haig’s new stage adaptation of Minority Report, based on a short story by Philip K Dick which Steven Spielberg turned into a film. It will be a co-production with Birmingham Rep and the Lyric Hammersmith in association with Simon Friend Entertainment, producers of Life of Pi. Max Webster will direct.
Haig commented, “it’s been the most exciting challenge of my career: to write a futuristic thriller for the stage, based on one of the greatest sci-fi stories ever told.”
Minority Report will open at Nottingham Playhouse from Friday 16 February until Saturday 9 March. It will transfer to Birmingham Rep from Friday 22 March until Saturday 6 April and Lyric Hammersmith from Friday 19 April until Saturday 18 May.
The Nottingham Playhouse season also includes Lucy Kirkwood’s The Children, a “gripping” tale of generational choices around nuclear power, from Saturday 23 March until Saturday 6 April, Sonali Bhattacharyya’s Liberation Squares, the story of three teenage Muslim girls undergoing a political awakening, on dates to be confirmed, and the return of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, which started off at Nottingham Playhouse and returns as part of a UK-wide tour after its Broadway run, from Tuesday 16 until Saturday 20 April.