Tim Crouch’s An Oak Tree at The Young Vic – Review Round-up

"Tim Crouch’s tricksy two-hander is still a theatrical wonder"

"A guest star – here, a delighted Jessie Buckley – is fed their script during the performance in this now two-decade-old revelation of theatre-making"

"Thrumming with liveness as it tells a story of grief, the play illuminates the manipulation and the wonder of the way stories transform us."

"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."

"The script is always the same but, with a different second actor each night, every performance is unique. Tonight, we are gifted Jessie Buckley, laughter spilling out between her allotted lines."

"The play’s manipulation – of the actor’s freedom, of our feelings – is deliberate and all-knowing."

"Starring a different celebrity each night, Tim Crouch’s experimental meditation on the nature of grief remains a thing of wonder"

"New shoots keep growing from Tim Crouch’s An Oak Tree, its legend quietly bubbling away for 20 years and its strange, unsettling magnificence never wavering."

"It’s fascinating to watch an actor as good as Buckley puzzle it out in real time. But the humour recedes, and what initially might seem gimmicky begins to build up its layers and to wrap grief around itself."

"As it goes on, it asks your brain to break into more and more pieces, and makes you think very grand thoughts about the magic of theatre and imagination and reality. But it never ever feels arch, never up itself; only ever rich and perplexing and fascinating"

"A clever thing, a funny thing, renewed every night, and every night incredibly poignant."

"Tim Crouch’s experimental play An Oak Tree is pure magic – and no two nights will ever be the same"

"This theatre landmark has been around for 20 years, but it still continues to create something new and uncomfortable"

"... this anniversary production still feels winningly tender and tentative, not authoritative."

"Buckley feels especially exposed on stage, her visible pregnancy adding a level of vulnerability that’s countered by the confident way she throws herself into the part"

"Watching An Oak Tree is sometimes – often! – an uncomfortable, frustrating experience."

"Crouch’s most powerful writing comes when death stops haunting the edges of the play and crashes into its centre, instead, emotions collapsing into abstracts."

"Humane and shattering study of bereavement"

"Twentieth anniversary production of Tim Crouch’s hugely influential experimental two-hander remains powerful and provocative"

"... this thought-provoking theatrical experiment from Tim Crouch is both a tender examination of grief and a fascinating deconstruction of the artifice of live performance."

"On press night, the role was given a vivid, vulnerable reading by Irish actor Jessie Buckley. Both considered and candid, she often paused to pin down the emotional core of a line before continuing, but would also react with generous openness, choking off words with a flood of tears or burst of strained laughter. Crouch, meanwhile, is a warm, steadying presence, a consummate improviser whose deep familiarity with the text allows him to adjust to his co-actor’s choices with tremendous fluidity."

"Intellectually, the piece is stimulating and satisfying. But on a visceral level, it builds into a humane and shattering study of bereavement."

"Jessie Buckley is hypnotised by Tim Crouch in remarkable play An Oak Tree"

"Buckley is the first star to take on a role sight unseen in a moving exploration of loss at London’s Young Vic"

"This extraordinary show is absolutely, extremely and very deliberately contrived: a slippery, shape-shifting duet that keeps changing the rules of engagement — with the material, with the premise, with the audience. And yet. It’s as intricately constructed as a Jenga tower, though the key to it is unpredictability"

"But what’s striking is the way Crouch handles the material, wrapping the themes of loss, control and dislocation into the structure."

"If it all sounds impossibly abstract, it’s certainly a danger. But Crouch embraces that, raising questions about the show’s validity and handling of this painful material, constantly drawing attention to his own manipulation of events. And what’s really remarkable, and moving, is that, in the midst of it all, Buckley made us see a grieving father, sitting on the ground and telling us his daughter has become an oak tree. None of it is true, yet we understood her."

"With a new star every time, no two nights are the same"

"Jessie Buckley worked too hard in her performance of Tim Crouch’s experimental play about a grieving father, which features different actors for each staging"

"Authenticity is not only not quite the point but is under interrogation too, even as the show’s depiction of grief becomes as emotionally intense as it is playful. Or it can do, anyway."

"Buckley is a sensationally good actress, and it’s finally Crouch’s show to control. Here, though, she works hard rather than letting the words take the strain. Her naturalistic pauses and reactions and changes in tone accidentally pull focus from the story. So I am partly going by memory to assure you there is something exciting and finally lucid in here about the stories we tell ourselves, the roles we play, the delusions we labour under to get by. "

"Tim Crouch's improv experiment An Oak Tree is far too pleased with itself"

"The two-hander, in which guest stars have never seen the script, has lost none of its ability to hypnotise - and frustrate"

"An Oak Tree this year celebrates its 20th anniversary, yet Tim Crouch’s play has lost none of its capacity to beguile and bewilder in roughly equal measure."

"All of this is fascinating up to a point."

"Yet the incontrovertible fact is that these 75 minutes of drama are a little too pleased with themselves – more pleased than we spectators will ever manage to be. The hermetically sealed nature of the construct similarly becomes frustrating, allowing guests little scope to imprint their individuality upon proceedings. We leave the theatre unsure whether we too have been hypnotised – or maybe even duped."

"This study of loss and grief is the stage equivalent of extreme sports"

"It’s the theatrical equivalent of extreme sports but — when it works — a chance to show some serious acting chops. At the performance I attended, the celebrity was Sope Dirisu (from Gangs Of London)."

"Crouch’s play is a study of loss, guilt and the power of suggestion; it’s funny and moving by turns, and a chance to see art being created in real time, as Crouch interacts with his guest. But so much depends on the second performer grabbing the chance to shine — and the technology working properly. Crouch’s microphone failed in the show I saw, further interrupting the flow and leaving Dirisu — normally such a commanding actor — looking rather lost."