We round up the reviews for this revival of Tim Crouch’s play, which features different guest performer at each performances.
The Guardian: **** “The play’s manipulation – of the actor’s freedom, of our feelings – is deliberate and all-knowing. The wonder of the performance lies in the way Crouch appears to point back at what he’s done, drawing our attention to the architecture of the action. He is a scientist explaining his technique, a magician rolling up his sleeves, a puppeteer showing us how he pulls the strings. He tells us it’s not real and still we insist that it is. He lays bare the act of making theatre.”
Time Out: **** “If you want it to be, this can just be about seeing a random celebrity improv awkwardly for 70 minutes. Lean into it, and it’s got a lot more to say, about authors and authority, memory and imagination. Most of all, An Oak Tree remains a beautiful landmark of experimental theatre. A clever thing, a funny thing, renewed every night, and every night incredibly poignant.”
All That Dazzles: **** “The ambition of the project cannot be faulted. An Oak Tree was one of the more exciting plays I have ever watched. From taking my seat, not knowing who would be joining Crouch on stage to not knowing where the play was going or even if it would all go according to plan. More than just a play, this is an experiment and an experience, and in that respect, it is like nothing I have ever seen before.”
London Theatre.co.uk: *** “The show, to my mind anyway, doesn’t so much build to a natural climax as merely stop, as if the engine of invention is beginning to run down. It’s ingenious and agile throughout, to be sure, but was I moved in any particular way, or myself emotionally transformed? Not on this night with this guest, but on another occasion, who knows?”
WhatsOnStage: **** “But perhaps the play’s biggest achievement is that its games, its layers of artifice, its big theatrical questions are never at the expense of the story but always in service to it. To this moving exploration of grief and guilt and how we can move through both.”
The Independent: **** “This theatre landmark has been around for 20 years, but it still continues to create something new and uncomfortable.”
The Stage: **** “Twentieth anniversary production of Tim Crouch’s hugely influential experimental two-hander remains powerful and provocative.”
The Upcoming: **** “Be it an exercise or a genuinely dense, intellectually questing rumination, An Oak Tree is transfixingly strange theatre that offers a unique spectacle of mutual discovery shared between scene partners and with their audience.”
The Reviews Hub: **** ” Ultimately,An Oak Treeis a poetic and intellectually rigorous piece that uses the language of theatre to illuminate the psychological murk of bereavement. It doesn’t just ask what it means to lose someone, it asks what it means to believe they’re gone. An Oak Tree is a play which very easily could become too clever for its own good, but nevertheless remains rooted in its emotional truth.”
West End Best Friend: *** “Unfortunately, this show errs on the side of patchy and doesn’t quite hang together. Crouch is a reassuring performer and onstage director – feeding lines to the guest performer, reacting and responding and gently reassuring when necessary. This form, though a playful and exciting concept, is ultimately jarring for a narrative like this that is so personal and intimate. The interruptions, changing over of scripts and line-feeding gets in the way of character development, which makes it hard to truly deliver the gut punch of grief that feels a bit dimmed in the performance.”
Theatre Vibe: “The Oak Tree has various muddled preconceptions but it is largely unbelievable, no suspension of disbelief, as we are introduced to Tim Crouch as the writer/actor and actor in Jessie Buckley. Much of the time Crouch is whispering into Jessie Buckley’s ear and we can hear what he says but not necessarily what she says; the wearing of headphones will confuse her stage volume. At time he goes off into a corner and speaks to her through the earphones with a microphone, we cannot hear him. As her responses are scripted, there are times when she will laugh at what she has to say.”
Broadway World: **** “An Oak Tree remains an excellent gateway into the potential of experimental theatre. Trends have changed and innovation has leapt and bounded since then, but the piece is as imaginative, striking, and emotional as it was at its premiere in 2005.”
Stage to Page.co.uk: “While An Oak Tree didn’t quite land for me, it’s undeniably a bold theatrical experiment. With a different guest actor each night, every performance promises a new dynamic and fresh unpredictability. If you’re curious about unconventional theatre, or simply intrigued by the impressive line-up of guest stars, then this may intrigue you.”
An Oak Tree continues to play at the Young Vic Theatre until the 24th May.