An Oak Tree

‘Since your daughter’s death I’ve not been much of a hypnotist.’ A man loses his daughter to a car accident. Nothing now is what it seems. It’s like he’s in a play - but he doesn’t know the words or the moves. The man who was driving the car is a stage hypnotist. Since the accident he’s lost the power of suggestion. His act’s a disaster. For him, everything now is exactly what it is. For the first time since the accident, these two men meet. They meet when the Father volunteers for the Hypnotist’s act. And, this time, he really doesn’t know the words or the moves…

An Oak Tree is a remarkable play for two actors. The Father, however, is played by a different actor - male or female - at each performance. They walk 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 a performance, given from one actor to another, from a hypnotist to their subject, from an audience to a person. An Oak Tree is a bold and absurdly comic play about loss, suggestion and the power of the mind.

An Oak Tree premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in August 2005.