Is he gallant or a ghoul?
David Martin was born in 1960 but grew up watching 1940s’ Hollywood classics in darkened cinemas where his mother took him to hide her bruises inflicted by a drinking, gambling husband. Her young son was drawn to the elegance and chivalry of Fred Astaire and Cary Grant as he tried to block out the images of his dad beating his mum, writes Michael Holland.
The set for The Trials of a Gentleman is a police interview room. Dark but with a harsh light available when needed. David matter-of-factly tells us he killed his boss. Now, he has been left alone by the investigating detectives to think about his future. The time is spent testing out his alibi on the audience.
David grew up odd. He stood out amongst others of his own age with their ‘long, hippy hair’ and 70s’ clothes, because of his attachment to attire that would not look out of place in a Brief Encounter railway station café. Even his accent has taken a vastly different route than the one he would have first had, an accent that fitted in with being the son of a docker in a dock town.
David became a teacher and loved women and children from a distance instead of inappropriately close up. Or so he tells us in this Jon Lawrence monologue. It is when the distance he keeps becomes closer and creepy that we begin to ask questions of his violent reaction. It is also asking ourselves if his childhood trauma – that went untreated – was the main factor in how he lived his life and ended up in a cell.
The play has flaws. It leans too much into old fogeydom, where it bemoans ‘the good old days’ having long gone along with damsels in distress needing a chivalrous knight to appear; especially if it is intended to be an excuse for murder. The overlong section about the education system became a rant instead of a subtle undercurrent that kept the suspense of the killing as the main feature of this work. I needed a little bit more from the female teacher, who was very vocal when David first showed his true self, but extremely mute when he needed her to step forward the second time. I wanted more tension, more signs of David’s real intention. Was he gallant or a ghoul? Mental or gentle?
Overall, The Trials of a Gentleman works as long as you don’t expect answers to all the questions the play wants you to ask.
Kit Smith did a great job in this world premiere, and will make the role of David Martin his own as he finds the truth in the character.
Brockley Jack Studio Theatre, 410 Brockley Road, London, SE4 2DH
Box office: www.brockleyjack.co.uk or 0333 666 3366 (£1.80 fee for phone bookings only)
Dates: Tuesday 24th – Saturday 28th March 2026 at 7.30pm.
Tickets: £16, £14 conc., 13+.
Running time: Seventy five minutes with no interval
