An Oak Tree unpicks what it means to make-believe. Returning for a 20th anniversary production, Tim Crouch’s tricksy two-hander sees him toy with a guest star who has never seen the script before they are fed it, piece by piece, in front of an audience. Thrumming with liveness as it tells a story of grief, the play illuminates the manipulation and the wonder of the way stories transform us.
Inspired by Michael Craig-Martin’s 1973 conceptual artwork that insists a glass of water is an oak tree, Crouch’s theatrical illusion talks things into being. He tells us a piano stool is an oak tree and an oak tree is a girl, so each insistence becomes true. He tells us his guest is a grieving father, and suddenly what we can see cracks in two. By layering these suggestions, he highlights the wizardry of any actor walking on to any stage, saying they are a character and asking us to believe them.
