The Young Vic Theatre has today announced that Francesca Moody Productions, the Olivier Award-winning producers of Fleabag and Baby Reindeer, will present Tim Crouch’s An Oak Tree, in association with the Young Vic from 6 – 17 May 2025 in the groundbreaking play’s 20th anniversary year. Tickets go on priority sale to members from 12pm today, public on sale is from 12pm on Monday 27 January.
Written, performed and co-directed by award-winning theatre maker, writer, actor and director Tim Crouch, this bold, absurdly comic, and profoundly moving story of loss, suggestion, and the power of the mind pioneered the idea of the theatrical ‘cold-read’ and has significantly influenced other artists that have gone on to explore this form. In every performance, a different guest artist steps into the unknown, having never seen, read or rehearsed the play before who will only perform it once during the run.
Since its premiere in 2005, over 350 different guest artists including Frances McDormand, Geoffrey Rush, Sharon D Clarke, Alanis Morrissette, Sophie Okonedo and Peter Dinklage have appeared in the play in 19 different countries from Lithuania, Argentina and the UK to Hong Kong, Australia and the USA. An Oak Tree is directed by Tim Crouch, Karl James and Andy Smith, the play also features music by Peter Gill.
When I say sleep, you’re free again.
A father loses his daughter in a car accident. The driver of the car that killed her is a stage hypnotist. The two men meet for the first time when the father volunteers for the hypnotist’s act. What follows is a live theatrical experience like no other – a bold and absurdly comic story of loss, suggestion and the power of the mind.
Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù (Gangs of London, Slow Horses), Michelle Terry (Tribes, The Cafe), Luke Thompson (Bridgerton, A Little Life) Russell Tovey (Being Human, American Horror Story: NYC) and Indira Varma (Game of Thrones, Present Laughter) are the first to be announced of 15 different guest artists who will each take to the Young Vic stage on a different date, to perform alongside Tim who returns to star in the production in its 20th anniversary year. Each guest artist will only be revealed to audiences live on the night, as they join Tim on stage. The remaining artists are to be announced in the coming weeks.
An Oak Tree will be presented at the Young Vic Theatre by Francesca Moody Productions (FMP) in association with the Young Vic. FMP’s work in theatre has originated two of the most globally successful television shows of the last decade: Fleabag and Baby Reindeer. Upcoming and current projects include Weather Girl (opening at Soho Theatre in March), Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible is Going to Happen (touring to Arts Centre Melbourne, Sydney Opera House, Adelaide Festival this winter) and How to Win Against History (opening at Bristol Old Vic in June).
Tim Crouch said, “Exactly twenty years ago a laboratory was created in a small room above a pub in South London where an experiment took place. Actors were invited to try out a new play I’d written called An Oak Tree – like trying out a new drug formulation. Each time a different actor who knew nothing about the play they were going to be in – a blind test each time. For some of the actors the drug was euphoric. For some it was heartbreaking. For some it was riotous. For some it was hard work. But the experiment was never less than enthralling. Twenty years later and that experiment is still ongoing with 374 blind tests to date. 374 actors who have done the play with me. And the laboratory has moved on from London to New York to LA to Russia to South America to Australia to Asia. Each time an actor who doesn’t know the play. Each time the same conditions. Each time a different result.
Twenty years since that room above a pub and the laboratory is the Young Vic, a theatre that has consistently proved its devotion to the new; a theatre that has developed an audience that is open and enquiring and engaged. I’m thrilled to see what happens to the experiment there. I’m thrilled to meet actors in the moment of performance. Actors I’ve never met in a play they’ve never met. Meeting an audience for one time only.”
Luke Thompson said, “I’m very excited to join the Oak Tree family and be a part of a piece which I think takes the very best thing about going to the theatre, that is, something actually happening live in front of you rather than filtered through a screen.
I’d say more but I have no clue what I’m in for…”
An Oak Tree opens at the Young Vic on 6 May 2025. The Young Vic’s 2025/26 Season, the inaugural programme under new Artistic Director Nadia Fall, will be announced later this Spring.
