“An Oak Tree” with Red Theater Chicago

An Oak Tree – Red Theatre

 

“An Oak Tree” had its Midwest premiere at the Athenaeum on November 3rd with Red Theater Chicago. The script by Tim Crouch includes two actors, one who has rehearsed the play and a second who has never even laid eyes upon it. The performance questions reality and how we deal with it, or evade it. On opening night, the rehearsed actor, also called THE HYPNOTIST, was played by Gage Wallace, who will continue for the run of the show, and the first volunteer actor was Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel. Directed meticulously by Jeremy Aluma, the performance left me speechless and has me tormentedly, but happily, baffled still to this day.

How to review a show like “An Oak Tree”? It is a meta-theatre show within a show within a show with improvisation and hypnotism. It challenges what the reality of the performance is, and the reality of life. It is a mess of beautiful contradictions littered across a stage. A red, traditional curtain frames the stage while a sound board stands unobscured against the blank, back wall. The hypnotist is dressed in traditional dark slacks, white shirt, and waistcoat while stuttering through sex jokes told through a handheld microphone. The stage resembles a late night Second City show with the actors maneuvering amongst? small wooden chairs as they discuss the conscious, the unconscious, death, blame, and fault.

 

I am encouraging you to attend this performance not because I can guarantee you anything, but because this production can guarantee you a truly original and unique performance. I can’t tell you to attend this performance because it will move you to tears or side-splitting laughter, even though it did this for me. In modern society, we are over-saturated with media and opinions. No one wants to waste their time on something that had less than 5 stars and plenty of arbitrary reviews.  Why not throw caution to the wind and go to this show? Stop worrying for one evening that you won’t get your money’s worth in this capitalist society that weighs every single thing. Instead of flipping through Netflix for an hour only to land on something that you have already watched, go to a production with an open mind and see what you want to see. See this show and tell me what you saw, because I can guarantee that it will be nothing like what I saw, or even what the audience member in the seat right next to me saw.

 

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Reviewed by Sophie Vitello

 

An Oak Tree runs Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 6:00 pm from November 3 through December 9. There are two additional Monday performances on November 5 and November 26 at 7:00 pm. All performances are in Studio One at the Athenaeum (2936 N Southport Ave, Chicago, IL 60657).

 

for information about this and other shows visit www.theatreinchicago.org