Thursday evening’s trip to the London Apollo to see Punch was informative, engaging and emotional. It’s the true story of James Hodgkinson’s death caused by a young lad called Jacob Dunne. Set in Nottingham it tells the story of Jacob’s background and circumstances, leading up to the point where he punched James, who’d been to see a cricket test match with his dad and friends, in a brawl outside Yates back in 2011, causing his death 9 days later. The story is one of redemption, following his death, James’s parents built a relationship with Jacob through the restorative
justice system, and helped him turn his life around, making sure their own son’s death built a positive legacy.
The cast of six actors worked incredibly hard to deliver a variety of characters involved in the story, covering Jacob’s mother, peers from his housing estate and law professionals, all while the actor playing Jacob told his story alongside the perspective from James’ s parents. Punch is a piece of Story Theatre, it combines narration delivered directly to the audience by ‘Jacob’ and covers a period of about 10 years. The play was powerful and, no pun intended, punchy. The pace was fast as we moved from housing estate to homes, to college and courtroom. Pupils were riveted to their seats as the story raced along and we encountered the (real) people involved.
The purpose of the play was to continue to raise awareness of the ‘one punch’, reaching out to (mostly) young men about the gambles they take once they engage in physical altercations, with their own lives and the lives of their opponents. Sadly, Jacob’s story is not unique, over 60 people have died from one punch incidents. More information can be found online if you are curious, simply search James Hodgkinson or Jacob Dunne; there are news stories and video interviews with Jacob and James’s parents.
Once again, pupils represented Passmores beautifully whilst out in public, and there were some wonderful conversations had about the staging and direction during the interval and on the way home.
Our next trip will be to Hertford Regional College to see their performing arts students deliver some pieces inspired by different theatre practitioners, another valuable learning opportunity for our GCSE pupils.

Year 7 and 8 will be receiving letters about this year’s Panto trip in the coming week or so, where we head over to Harlow Playhouse for the afternoon to see Sleeping Beauty. Keep your eyes peeled on Arbor for the letter and be sure to secure your place early. It’s always a wonderful afternoon and sets the tone for the run up to Christmas at school beautifully.