by D. Jette~

British actor and playwright Tim Crouch has received international acclaim for his stage work for good reason: not only is he a captivating and compassionate performer, as a playwright he has demonstrated a fundamental understanding of what makes theatre different from all other narrative arts, an understanding that he puts to work in the conception of his two-man play An Oak Tree, now playing at the Odyssey.  Where other theatre artists work countless hours to iron out the unexpected, Crouch denies the very idea that theatre can or should be predictable.  He underscores this belief by casting a new actor as his partner every night, and he has engineered a series of conventions to help each new player through the night without ever giving them a chance to rehearse or even know the story ahead of time.

An Oak Tree is the story of the on stage meeting of a cheesy stage hypnotist and the father of a young girl he has accidentally killed with his car.  The content is familiar, the central event is an unintended and achingly pointless tragedy that shatters the lives of both men.   Crouch tells the story by moving between the father’s profound grief and the hypnotist’s onstage collapse.  His quirkily familiar hypnotist suits his pre-show personality so well its easy to imagine him entertaining a roomful of college orientees or an office party, but the consequences of the tragedy are poorly hidden behind the cheesy drum machine music and parlor games.  When one of his volunteers reveals himself to the victim’s father, he is crushed, and despite moving rapidly between narrator, puppetmaster, stage hand and stricken motorist he is magnificent in projecting a heartfelt guilt and bewilderment.

The play progresses in such an unconventional way that the story takes a back seat to the methods of control he has devised to guide his partner through the play.  Crouch directs his fellow actor through direct address “Sit here”, “Say this”, through scripts held tightly to a set of clipboards that are close at hand, and most interestingly, through a set of earphones that he is able to whisper into through a remote microphone.  Without ever having read the script or seen the play, the second actor is able to deliver entire heartfelt monologues, engage in some very heavy dialogue, and even perform physical comedy bits and blocking.  The mechanics of this arrangement are the star of the show despite Crouch’s well crafted script, and its the interaction between the concept and the moment that makes this play revolutionary.

It’s difficult to review An Oak Tree from the point of view of a single performance.  When I saw the show the second role was played by veteran actor Beth Grant, who I remember most vividly as the ‘Love/Fear’ lady from the film Donnie Darko, but has been a part of countless award winning plays, movies, and television.  Not having seen other potential casts of the play, my impression was that Grant was a bit restricted in her approach to the material and did not engage her instincts as readily as Crouch designed.  There were moments when the on stage direction became too repetitive, leading me to believe that Grant was waiting for instruction even when the next step was telegraphed.  Nonetheless, during the play’s climax when the father is delivers a long and beautiful monologue, Grant relayed the lines being whispered into her ears with considerable fear and love.

The title of the play refers to the father’s belief that he has miraculously transformed a tree into his late daughter. The themes of mind-control and willful public embarrassment are perfectly aligned with the mode of the play, and the unpredictable magic of theatre is laid out in such a simple and tangible way that its astonishing how completely Crouch has encapsulated his medium in a single act.  Each night he wills another actor into something else entirely, and after only 70 minutes his volunteer and his audience alike are left wondering how he was able to do it.

An Oak Tree is written by and stars Tim Crouch. Directed by Tim Crouch Karl James and a smith.  The performance reviewed also starred Beth Grant.  Each performance features a different actor in the role of the Father  Produced by the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, Beth Hogan with *Page One Productions, Dan Fishback, William Adashek and Michele Spears in Assoc. with Marc Platt.  Lighting Design by William Adashek, Sound Design by Peter Gill.  Production Stage Manager is Rachel Manheimer.

An Oak Tree runs January 6 to February 14.

Odyssey Theatre Ensemble is located at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles,  90025, just north of Olympic Blvd.

Performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 8:00 P.M. and Sunday at 2:00 P.M.

Tickets are $30. For reservations call (310) 477-2055 or visit www.OdysseyTheatre.com.  For more information about the play visit www.anoaktreela.com