Tim Crouch's an Oak Tree

‘You will see no false nothing false tonight’ – the Hypnotist

Tim Crouch’s second play collapses a tale of loss and grief into an exploration of theatrical representation, in a piece of theatre that is at once formally innovative and profoundly moving. Written for two actors, An Oak Tree depicts the fraught meeting of a grieving father and the stage hypnotist who was behind the wheel of the car that killed his daughter, with the father played by a different actor at each performance, walking on stage with no prior knowledge of the play.

Catherine Love explores An Oak Tree's connections with conceptual art, the unique process of its creation, its interrogation of stage representation, its relationship with audiences, and its place as part of Crouch’s ongoing body of work.

Catherine Love is currently completing a thesis on the status of the text in contemporary English theatre at Royal Holloway. She is the editor of the student edition of Punk Rock by Simon Stephens and she also writes for the Guardian, The Stage and Exeunt.