an oak tree

an oak tree is the story of two men brought together by loss: a father whose daughter has been killed in a car accident and the driver of the car that killed her, a provincial stage hypnotist. For the father, nothing now is what it was. For the hypnotist, everything now is exactly what it is, and consequently his act is a disaster. an oak tree is about the dramatic intertwining of human lives as the hypnotist inadvertently calls the man on stage as volunteer, reuniting them for the first time since the accident.

an oak tree is a bold and absurdly comic play about loss, suggestion and the power of the mind – a piece that dismantles the mechanics of theatre while demonstrating its potential to be extraordinarily moving. It is also a “moving meditation on the extraordinary transforming possibilities of art itself” (The Guardian).

Each performance features a different actor – male or female – playing the role of The Father. That actor walks on stage having neither seen nor read a word of the play they’re in… until they’re in it. This is a breath-taking projection of performance, given from one actor to another, from a hypnotist to a subject, from an audience to a person.