Indira Varma, Luke Thompson, and Russell Tovey among guest stars in Tim Crouch’s 'An Oak Tree'

Since its premiere in 2005, over 350 different guest artists including Sharon D Clarke, Alanis Morrissette, Sophie Okonedo, and Peter Dinklage have performed in An Oak Tree.

Tim Crouch’s groundbreaking An Oak Tree will be staged at the Young Vic this May to celebrate the play's 20th anniversary.

Written, performed, and co-directed by theatremaker Crouch, the play pioneered the idea of the theatrical ‘cold-read’, in which a performer steps on to the stage having never seen, read or rehearsed the play before.

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 performed Crouch’s play about a father who loses his daughter in a car accident, and meets the driver responsible for her death during their hypnotist act on stage.

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 take to the stage alongside Crouch. Each guest artist will be revealed to audiences live on the night.

The remaining artists are to be announced in the coming weeks.

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…”

Check back for An Oak Tree tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Indira Varma, Luke Thompson, and Russell Tovey. (Photos courtesy of production)