An Oak Tree

Published Monday 19 February 2007 at 10:50 by Paul Vale

In a rather tender and thoughtful play from Tim Crouch, a stage hypnotist has been unable to successfully work since killing a young girl in a motor accident. The girl’s father finds himself unable to cope with the loss and turns to the hypnotist for a solution. What raises this play above the ordinary is that the actor playing the father performs with no knowledge of the script or story. By a series of devices, the actor playing the hypnotist directs the other actor, who reads from the script or repeats dialogue relayed through headphones.

The opening performance features the author in the role of the hypnotist and Sophie Okonedo as the father. Crouch ploughs through the script with authority and assurance, giving poignancy to the text and a recognisable flair to the stage hypnotist scenes. Naturally Okonedo, whom Crouch met an hour previous to the performance, seemed a little uncertain but handled the direction and dialogue with panache.

Yet while the play works on paper, sadly the concept itself completely fails to engage the audience as fragmented and constricting as it is. Given the opportunity for improvisation the actor might have been able to breathe some life into the piece but in this state we are simply witness to a rather schizophrenic exercise in sight-reading. This method limits the actor to such a degree that they appear more as dupes for the stage hypnotist than seasoned performers. The people who saw the Emperor’s New Clothes should book their tickets well in advance.