“Punch” brings an incredible true story of restorative justice to Broadway. Hear from the real people behind that story in a special episode of our New Thinking podcast.
When 19-year-old Jacob Dunne threw a single punch at James Hodgkinson outside a bar in Nottingham, England, he didn’t realize he had taken James’s life.
Along with grief and anger, James’s parents—David Hodgkinson and Joan Scourfield—had a lot of unanswered questions: Why had a total stranger done this to their son? Was it going to happen again to someone else?
We had a lot of questions about that night, and the justice system couldn’t answer them.
— JOAN SCOURFIELD, mother of James Hodgkinson
With the help of a restorative justice facilitator from the UK organization Remedi, they reached out to Jacob directly, after he had finished his sentence for manslaughter at a young offenders prison.
Jacob agreed to answer their questions, opening a dialogue that would eventually grow into a remarkable partnership—with the three of them working together to raise awareness about the dangers of violence and the power of restorative justice to help people find a way forward.
It would’ve been easier to ignore it, but then I would’ve stayed stuck. That’s one way of describing restorative justice—it’s about helping people become unstuck.
— JACOB DUNNE
Now, their story has made it all the way to Broadway in the form of the hit play “Punch,” written by playwright James Graham and produced in New York City by Manhattan Theatre Club. Practitioners and leaders from the Center have partnered with the production to facilitate select post-show discussions with audiences.
On a special episode of our New Thinking podcast, hear from the real people whose story of courage, compassion, and redemption formed the basis for the play—Joan Scourfield and David Hodgkinson, James’s parents; Jacob Dunne; and restorative justice practitioner Nicola Fowler, who facilitated their unlikely dialogue.