Jessie Buckley and Tim Crouch in An Oak Tree at the Young Vic. © Pamela Raith.Crouch, a bald and gangling man in his early 60s, created what could conceivably be a jolly caper with significant opportunity for mishaps and the imposition of each actor’s individual style. Certainly, when he first performed the piece as a 40 year old, it seemed more collaborative, less manipulative, and frankly less creepy than the spectacle presented last evening at the Young Vic at which a pregnant Jessie Buckley submitted herself to the experience.
So, has AN OAK TREE become an example of the Emperor’s old new clothes? Despite the premise oozing potential, what may have seemed novel 20 years ago, now looks a little half-baked, even embarrassing in places. All credit to any celeb submitting themselves to this excruciating and potentially mortifying ordeal. Crouch is at pains to offer repeated reassurances throughout. “You’re doing really well xxxxx” will be a common utterance whomever you see on your visit.
At the outset, Crouch invites the guest performer up onto the stage from their front row seat. They are handed a script and the pair read together. Crouch prompts answers to questions with “Say yes”, “Say no” and the participant dutifully obeys! Control is everything here and instructions are fed continuously through earphones, directly, or on paper. Irrespective of their age and gender, the guest performer assumes the identity of Andy, a middle aged man whose young daughter has recently been hit and killed in a car accident. [Yes - let that sink in for a moment]. The driver of that vehicle is Crouch’s character, an onstage hypnotist of the type which would half-fill an end-of-pier summer season. Clad in a silver waistcoat and trying to convince audience volunteers with his microphone confidence, a nervous, unhappy man, lurks just beneath the stage-y veneer. We learn he is merely completing contractual gigs before stopping his act for good - possibly as a result of PTSD following the accident. The idea is a harrowing one, both uncomfortable for those on stage and those of us watching in the audience. Finding humour in the situation no longer feels appropriate and an atmosphere of barely suppressed anger and sadness, permeates proceedings. It focuses the mind and we find ourselves over analysing every twitch and judging the performer’s nervous reactions. To describe the situation as ‘exposed’ is a massive understatement. This is experimental theatre in the raw. If you’ve never experienced such a show before, it may represent a novel and curious interlude, but where this production led, others followed and infinitely more sophisticated examples can now be found e.g. Nassim Soleimanpour’s ECHO which builds and reveals nuanced messaging and offers far less of a blunt tool.
Whilst moments of AN OAK TREE can make you wriggle uncomfortably or fall silent in shock, the opening night certainly felt far longer than the snappy, no-interval, advertised running time. The production still represents a groundbreaking foray into another realm of theatre, but by the time the 400th guest performer complete’s their onstage stint, perhaps it would be best for all concerned to lay it to rest.
