The Young Vic has announced that Tim Crouch’s An Oak Tree is extending its run at the theatre, and is now playing from 6 to 24 May 2025.
Written, performed and co-directed by Tim Crouch, the play features a different guest artist in every performance, who has neither seen nor read the play before.
Newly announced today are Adjoa Andoh (Bridgerton, Richard II), Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter, Cabaret), Arthur Darvill (Broadchurch, Oklahoma!), Mark Gatiss (The League of Gentlemen, The Motive and the Cue), Julie Hesmondhalgh (Mr Bates vs The Post Office, Punch) and Alex Lawther (The End of the F***ing World, Black Mirror), who will perform opposite Tim Crouch, for the 20th anniversary of the production.
They join the previously announced stars Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù (Gangs of London, Slow Horses), Michelle Terry (Tribes, Three Sisters), Luke Thompson (Bridgerton, A Little Life), Russell Tovey (Being Human, American Horror Story: NYC) and Indira Varma (Game of Thrones, Oedipus).
The final remaining artists are to be announced in the coming weeks.
In every performance, a different guest artist steps into the unknown, having never seen, read or rehearsed the play before, and who will only perform it once during the run. Each guest artist will only be revealed to audiences live on the night, as they join Tim on stage.
Written, performed and co-directed by award-winning theatre maker, writer, actor and director Tim Crouch, this bold, absurdly comic, and profoundly moving story of loss, suggestion, and the power of the mind pioneered the idea of the theatrical ‘cold-read’ and has significantly influenced other artists that have gone on to explore this form.
Since its premiere in 2005, over 350 different guest artists including Frances McDormand, Geoffrey Rush, Sharon D Clarke, Alanis Morrissette, Sophie Okonedo and Peter Dinklage have appeared in the play in 19 different countries from Lithuania, Argentina and the UK to Hong Kong, Australia and the USA.
An Oak Tree is directed by Tim Crouch, Karl James and Andy Smith, and the play features music by Peter Gill.
An Oak Tree is presented by Francesca Moody Productions, the Olivier Award-winning producers of Fleabag and Baby Reindeer, in association with the Young Vic in the groundbreaking play’s 20th anniversary year.
Francesca Moody Productions’ current and forthcoming shows include Weather Girl at Soho Theatre, My Master Builder starring Ewan McGregor, Elizabeth Debicki & Kate Fleetwood at the Wyndham’s Theatre, and How to Win Against History at the Bristol Old Vic.
Tim Crouch said in a statement: “Exactly twenty years ago a laboratory was created in a small room above a pub in South London where an experiment took place. Actors were invited to try out a new play I’d written called An Oak Tree – like trying out a new drug formulation. Each time a different actor who knew nothing about the play they were going to be in – a blind test each time. For some of the actors the drug was euphoric. For some it was heartbreaking. For some it was riotous. For some it was hard work. But the experiment was never less than enthralling. Twenty years later and that experiment is still ongoing with 374 blind tests to date. 374 actors who have done the play with me. And the laboratory has moved on from London to New York to LA to Russia to South America to Australia to Asia. Each time an actor who doesn’t know the play. Each time the same conditions. Each time a different result. Twenty years since that room above a pub and the laboratory is the Young Vic, a theatre that has consistently proved its devotion to the new; a theatre that has developed an audience that is open and enquiring and engaged. I’m thrilled to see what happens to the experiment there. I’m thrilled to meet actors in the moment of performance. Actors I’ve never met in a play they’ve never met. Meeting an audience for one time only.”
An Oak Tree is playing at the Young Vic in London from 6 to 24 May 2025.
More about tickets to An Oak Tree at The Young Vic in London
The Other Palace, London
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