REVIEW: The Trials of a Gentleman by John Lawrence at Jack Studio Theatre 24 - 28 March 2026

‘Fairly compelling self-declared murderer’ ★★

David Martin (Kit Smith) is a primary school teacher who is, it soon emerges, in a police station because he has committed a murder. What follows is a monologue in which we learn about his childhood, career and, above all his against-the-grain traditional values. “I was born in 1960 and raised in the 1940s” he declares mentioning his “retrograde demeanour”.

There are events in his working class Gravesend childhood which have contributed to his apparent chivalry and behaviour which he makes sound reasonable but clearly isn’t in the present day. Smith lives in the role and is convincing but there’s a slight speech impediment and I have no idea whether this is assumed for the part or not. Either way it’s a verbal tic which acts as an aural irritant.

The play is decently scripted and there are some quite witty lines. But the long digressions into education and how it has lost its way add little to the narrative. Although as a former teacher I found these digressions quite interesting and empathised, in places this play sounds like a personal plea at, say, a public meeting.

The piece is staged round a table, three chairs and a hat stand. The chairs become symbols of characters. One represents David’s mother and later Miss Haynes, the young colleague he adores. The other stands for his father and the loathed, predatory academy head Mr Jacobson. John Lawrence who directs and Smith make this trope work quite effectively.

There’s something odd about the length of this one act play. It’s billed as 75 minutes but actually runs barely an hour. The narrative is studded with musical interludes, mostly referring to David’s love of film which he shared with his mother. These are presumably there to provide Smith with short breaks from speaking because it’s a pretty wordy piece. In the event, though, they feel like contrivances to eke out the play.

It’s a fairly compelling story and Smith holds audience attention but the piece needs more work.

The Trials of a Gentleman

Written and directed by John Lawrence

Jack Studio Theatre

Box Office https://brockleyjack.co.uk/jackstudio-entry/the-trials-of-a-gentleman/