This is an unusual show. For starters, there is no oak tree in An Oak Tree. Except there is, if an art exhibit created in 1973 of the same name is to be believed. As ‘conceptual art’, both the exhibit and this play seem to be asserting that the appreciation of art in general (whether ‘art’ is an exhibit or a theatrical performance, or indeed film, television or a concert) requires an act of faith. Specifically, when it comes to a play, there’s suspension of disbelief. You might, of course, choose to decry this as b*llsh*t, at least in terms of the extent of ‘faith’ required here. After all, an oak tree is an oak tree and a glass of water is a glass of water, and ne’er the twain shall meet.
If you’re still reading this, well, the illusion of theatre, so to speak, created in this play is more digestible, and the play is frankly never nearly as pretentious as the exhibit from which it may or may not have taken its name. Tim Crouch plays a hypnotist who is doing their act on stage. A few months prior to the gig – or, if you please, the show within the show – the hypnotist had killed a schoolgirl. Not a deliberate act, mind you, but a road traffic accident. The father of that schoolgirl has turned up at the hypnotist’s show, raises his hand as a volunteer, and finds himself on stage.
At the opening night of this run, the audience is duly introduced to Gwyneth Keyworth, who was drafted in as the show’s second actor. The other person at The Other Palace plays the role of the father, with Crouch playing the role of the hypnotist. There are two caveats. First, Keyworth will not appear again during this run. There is to be a different second actor at every performance. Second, Keyworth, nor anyone else who has joined Crouch on stage since he started performing An Oak Tree in 2005, has read the play beforehand, let alone rehearsed it.
Not every guest second actor has been confirmed, though at the time of writing the lineup includes Prasanna Puwanarajah (8 October), Rosalie Craig (9 October), Olivia Williams (10 October), Rhashan Stone (11 October), Clare Perkins (13 October), Tom Mothersdale (14 October), Gemma Whelan (15 October), Bessie Carter (16 October), Josh Finan (17 October matinee), Juliet Stevenson (18 October), Sean Gilder (20 October), Sacha Dhawan (23 October), Tanya Reynolds (24 October evening), Sophie Melville (25 October), Hammed Animashaun (29 October), Brian Gleeson (30 October), Dónal Finn (1 November), Hugh Skinner (4 November), Reece Shearsmith (6 November), Ria Zmitrowicz (8 November), George Fouracres (10 November) and Suranne Jones (15 November).
The style and format of the show take some getting used to, as it naturally follows that in order for the other actor to understand what is happening, it takes some explanation. Sometimes Crouch allows the audience to hear his instructions; other times they are spoken into a microphone with the other actor being the only person hearing them, via earphones. Either way, proceedings have a slower momentum. The portrayal of the hypnotist’s act itself came across as a tad laborious, and indeed the play itself is only too happy to admit the narrative arc is more than a little contrived. But the hypnotist’s insistence that something is not real and the father’s insistence that the same something is real proved to be surprisingly profound and insightful.
It was not the most elaborate of sets – with the show being a thought-inducing one rather than a spectacle to behold. Crouch switches between the hypnotist character and master of ceremonies, and back again, and so forth, in a show that begins as something almost annoyingly sluggish but blossoms into something genuinely intriguing. A solid work of experimental theatre, it’s worth seeing.
Review by Chris Omaweng
Since its world premiere in 2005, Tim Crouch’s An Oak Tree has become one of the most influential and widely celebrated plays of the twenty-first century, performed hundreds of times in more than 19 countries while continually reinventing itself. A play that shaped the theatre landscape, its groundbreaking premise sees a different guest artist join Crouch for every performance, stepping on stage without ever having read or rehearsed the play. Over the past two decades, more than 350 performers have taken on this extraordinary theatrical challenge, creating a unique event every night and an audience experience like no other.
Written and performed by Tim Crouch
Directors: Tim Crouch, Karl James and Andy Smith
Music: Peter Gill
Casting: Naomi Downham
AN OAK TREE
The Other Palace
7 October to 15 November 2026
