We start off with a simple, yet incomprehensibly complex anecdote – that a man turns a tree into his daughter, and that a theatre producer (possibly related, or not at all) turns an actor into a character. But as we find as the story goes on, that absurdity becomes an endearing way to turn the story inward towards ourselves, as K. Brian Neel’s adaptation of Tim Crouch’s An Oak Tree never leaves the viewer in a state of passivity. While this play relies on the strength of improvisation by the actors at hand, the production excels in managing to spark our imagination and calling to attention the relationship between the artist and the viewer.
As the show starts, we watch the director/producer, played permanently in this run by David Gassner, explain to both the guest actor and the audience the rules of the production. What we find, and are quickly told, is that we witnessing multiple stories – we see Gassner as both a producer and director of the guest actor, who is meant to interact with audience, and Gassner as a hypnotist that helps the guest actor, who also believes that they are a father grieving over the loss of their daughter. What becomes the feature of the play is the father believing that he turns an oak tree into his daughter, much to the chagrin of his family. While there is an over-arching idea of the power of grief in the play as both actors grasp with the reality of death and mourning of a loss, it is hard not to let the power of imagination take over this production.
It is important to remember that each night that this show goes on, the guest actor alongside David Gassner will be different. The night I saw it, Peter Antoniou had been the grieving father/faithful actor. I found Gassner to excel in the role of the director/producer, but maybe because Antoniou seemed to be so caught up in the imaginative side of his character instead of the grieving aspects. The play, and the two actors in the night I saw this production, definitely bring to light the possible relationship between a real-life actor and producer, or maybe even more the importance of imagination in conceiving a play from both the playwright and the audiences’ mind. But the idea of grief that was meant to be portrayed in this production seemed to be completely overshadowed by the importance of imagination. This isn’t to say that any form of grief isn’t involved in the story. But the way in which the actors seemed to effortlessly convey the idea of imagination and its importance in the realm of theatre ends up overshadowing the possibility of examining grief within this production, and possibly theatre in general. As opposed to what the leaflet might say, I would suggest that this becomes a play of the nature of grief stemming from the power of imagination, as opposed to the opposite.
And yet while this is labeled as a story of grief and imagination, one cannot minimize the importance of the actors who are in the guest roles in the performances. You never forget that the guest is an actor, but you also soon never forget that this same guest actor is a grieving father. The play, loosely based on a conceptual art piece by Michael Craig-Martin in 1973 of the same name, means to search for the core element or elements of theatre. While Craig-Martin played with the relationship between the artist and the viewer by claiming a glass of water to be an oak tree, I find the play of the same name by Tim Crouch attempting to play more with the relationship between the director/producer and the actor, with the audience as a third party. While both the viewer and the artist are equally key in perceiving and creating art, conceptual art, and absurdist theatre like this play, are tantamount in revealing that there is a confident faith in the artist’s capacity to speak and convey their meanings and the viewer’s unwavering acceptance in what they have to say.
This is a play that benefits from not only one viewing, but from multiple viewings. You can surely see it once and explore the many themes that this play conveys. But the essential or core elements of this production, or maybe even theatre in general, come to fruition when we can see the same play with different guest actors. I am quite eager to see this production again, and would love to see what other actors have in store when they are in the hot seat.
The guest actors will be:
Friday, March 3 James Miles
Saturday, March 4 Lisa Viertel
Sunday, March 5 Bob Williams
Monday, March 6 Marianna de Fazio
An Oak Tree. 18th and Union. 1406 18th Ave. Seattle, 98122 (Central District, just North of corner of 18th and Union) Thurs. Mar 2nd thru Mon. Mar 6th @ 7:30PM. Tickets: 18thandunion.org.