Young Vic Taking Part and the London Violence Reduction Unit’s Young People’s Action Group
In March 2025, Nottingham Playhouse brought its production of Punch to the Young Vic stage, in association with KPPL Productions and Mark Gordon Pictures. It was written by James Graham, based on the book Right From Wrong by Jacob Dunne, directed by Adam Penford, with design by Anna Fleischle.
Young Vic Taking Part
Young Vic Taking Part is the Young Vic’s Creative Engagement Department. It’s how children, young people, and adults in Lambeth and Southwark get free tickets, take part in projects, and join in programmes every year.
KPPL Productions
KPPL Productions is a theatre and film company with a clear social justice focus. Alongside making work for general audiences, they team up with others to create wraparound and outreach projects - making sure the productions they’re part of have an even bigger impact.
Together, Young Vic Taking Part and KPPL Productions created the Punch Wraparound Programme. It offered loads of creative ways to get involved, as a young person, an adult, in a learning setting, or as part of the local community. We’re talking workshops, pre-show events, a playwriting programme and a really exciting collaboration with the London Violence Reduction Unit’s Young People’s Action Group (YPAG). Here’s a description of the YPAG, from the YPAG:
‘We are the Young People’s Action Group at the Mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU). We are a group of 16–24-year-olds who are passionate about making London a better and safer place for young people. We work for and alongside the VRU to tackle violence and provide children and young people with access to positive opportunities.
Our voice, as young people, is embedded in the work the VRU does. We firmly believe in the mantra: nothing about us without us.’
YPAG shared this with us: ‘we believe that the theatre and creative spaces should be more open, accessible, and relevant for everyone. That’s why we are delighted to be collaborating with Young Vic Taking Part on this collection of activities.’
Young Vic Taking Part have really enjoyed working with the London Violence Reduction Unit’s YPAG to make a set of creative resources for other young people. Here is a glimpse into our process of collaborating on a collection of resources for young people, where to find those resources, and how to use them.
The Process
In early April, YPAG came to see Punch at the Young Vic. Young Vic Taking Part loved welcoming them into the building and to watch the production.
After they watched the show, we invited them back the following day for a workshop. During this workshop, they shared their thoughts and feelings about the show with Punch Consultant Jacob Dunne and Punch Associate Director Omar Khan.
In the workshop, we broke down the themes of the play: what hit home, what was tough, how it left us feeling, and what kind of resource could help other young people engaging with it or with any of the themes in the play. There were a few rules: it had to be easy to use and share, it needed to handle the sensitive themes in a safe way, and it had to play to our strengths.
YPAG told us that this needed to be:
- A resource you could use before seeing the show, after seeing the show, or even if you’ve never seen it at all.
- A resource for young people aged 14 – 25.
- A resource for any setting that you could possibly find young people in – a school, a youth centre, a young people’s project.
- Something that sparks conversation.
- Something fun.
From there, we realised we needed more time to figure out exactly what this resource should be. Some YPAG members sent over their ideas for activities, their own reflections on the production and a suggested workshop plan. Over two online workshops, we started breaking them down - thinking about why they mattered, how to plan them, and how to lead them.
We knew we wanted the workshop leaders to feel confident in leading the activities with kindness and joy. We wanted to make the activities themselves as accessible as possible and for them to provide an opportunity to open up conversations between young people and the trusted adults in their life.
Omar Khan ran a workshop that helped us dig deeper into the play itself - what we thought the core message was, and what we personally connected with the most.
Then Philip J Morris ran a session where he mentored YPAG through each section of the plan; asking questions, throwing in provocations, and helping us think about content, delivery, and what really matters when you’re facilitating.
Following each workshop, we amended and developed the activities and the workshop plan. Before finally trying out the workshop ourselves.
Now, we’ve got a collection of activities we’re proud of and we’re going to keep building on them. The resource is a collection of activities that encourage discussion, connection, and creative expression.
‘We have created these activities to help other young people explore the real-life themes of the play Punch - whether you’ve seen the play, plan to, or just want to talk about choices, justice, and second chances. We wanted to make something creative, real, relatable and useful for young people’ YPAG
The next step is for us to test these with the new YPAG cohort. Keep an eye on this page, we’ll update it, and this resource will remain here and open access.
