Tim Crouch creates a powerful and fascinating theatrical world from almost nothing
⭐⭐⭐⭐
There is a lot to admire about Tim Crouch – his bravery, his calmness and his ability to create emotion in a millisecond – and An Oak Tree has all those things in spades.
Crouch is a writer, director and performer whose work has developed its own distinctive theatrical language, often playing with the relationship between actor, audience and the very idea of performance. An Oak Tree followed his breakthrough play My Arm and has become one of his defining works.
First performed in 2005, An Oak Tree premiered at the Edinburgh Festival, where it won a Herald Angel award, before going on to tour internationally. More than two decades later, it has been performed hundreds of times around the world, with hundreds of different actors taking on the role of Crouch’s second performer. Previous guests have included Frances McDormand, David Tennant, Jessie Buckley, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Christopher Eccleston, Sophie Okonedo and Peter Dinklage.
The premise has remained the same: at every performance Crouch is joined by a different actor who has never previously seen or read the play and has not rehearsed it. They discover what they are required to do at essentially the same time as the audience.
Tonight marks the opening of the new run at The Other Palace, with Gwyneth Keyworth as Crouch’s guest performer.
What’s it about?
The premise is deceptively simple. Crouch plays a stage hypnotist performing in a pub just off Oxford Street. He brings a man up from the audience as part of his act – except the man is the father of a young girl the hypnotist has killed in a car accident.
And that father is played by the guest performer.
What we loved
I have seen a few of Tim Crouch’s plays in the past and they often have an element of audience interaction – or perhaps engagement rather than interaction – as he has an extraordinary ability to calmly control a room.
He’s a braver person than me to submit himself to an environment where almost anything can happen. He doesn’t know exactly how the guest performer will respond, or how the audience will behave as events unfold. Yet he seems to relish it. There is such a calm and commanding presence about him that we willingly follow wherever he decides to take us.
And that makes for a great night at the theatre.
The stage is almost completely empty. There are chairs, which Crouch arranges as required, speakers and a sound system. Sometimes Keyworth is given a script to read; at other times Crouch speaks to her through headphones, while elsewhere he simply gives her instructions out loud.
It is fascinating to watch how the whole thing is constructed and to see the different layers Crouch has built into his writing. You are never quite sure where he is going to take you and, quite often, it is somewhere you weren't expecting to go. Here, at the heart of everything, is the death of a child.
Crouch bravely leads us there.
There is no set to speak of, no elaborate stage lighting, no special effects and no costumes other than the waistcoat Crouch wears as the hypnotist. Yet somehow he conjures completely believable worlds and then turns them on and off with the click of his fingers.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing is the speed with which the piece can move between theatrical construction and genuine emotion. One moment you are acutely aware that you are watching a performance being assembled in front of you; the next, you are completely inside the story.
Keyworth has the particularly difficult job of being both performer and participant. We are watching her discover the piece as she performs it, and that uncertainty becomes part of the experience. Crouch, meanwhile, remains reassuringly in command – guiding her, the story and us through the evening.
Anything we’d change?
Part of the point of An Oak Tree is that you surrender some control as an audience member. The guest performer changes every night, their responses cannot be entirely predicted, and Crouch deliberately keeps you aware of the mechanics of what you are watching.
That will not be for everyone. But it is also precisely what makes the piece so fascinating.
Verdict
Tim Crouch really is remarkable in the unique theatrical style he has mastered. An Oak Tree strips theatre back almost completely – no scenery, spectacle or conventional theatrical tricks – and demonstrates just how much can be created through words, imagination, trust and the relationship between performer and audience.
Brave, unpredictable and at times moving, it is a fascinating watch.
Who created it?
Written and performed by: Tim Crouch
Guest performer (7 October): Gwyneth Keyworth
For full list of other guest performers, visit https://theotherpalace.co.uk/an-oak-tree/