Oil by Ella Hickson, new production from Masquerade Theatre Company, February 2024

My father rode a camel. I drive a car.
My son flies a jet airplane.
His son will ride a camel.

A SAUDI SAYING

Spanning more than 150 years, Oil follows the lives of one woman and her daughter in an epic, hurtling collision of empire, history and family. An explosive play which drills deep into the world’s relationship with this finite resource.

“Domestic drama written on the largest canvas… sharp, witty, incisive writing… the dialectics Hickson crams into simple, domestic settings and relatable, human characters is utterly gripping; arguments about justice, colonialism, capitalism and the human condition are wielded with deftness and articulacy” Exeunt Magazine

PLEASE NOTE THE EARLIER START TIME OF THIS PLAY – 7.30PM

This play contains subject matter not suitable for children under 13

“ELLA HICKSON’S EXPLOSIVE PLAY DRILLS DEEP INTO THE WORLD’S RELATIONSHIP WITH THIS FINITE RESOURCE. IT IS ‘THE SINGLE MOST GLORIOUSLY AUDACIOUS PIECE OF PLAYWRITING OF THE LAST FEW YEARS”

EVENING STANDARD

“HUGELY IMAGINATIVE… I CAN’T GET IT OUT OF MY MIND”

INDEPENDENT

“AN AUDACIOUS EPIC… A HUGE, AMBITIOUS STUDY OF CO-DEPENDENCY: MOTHER AND DAUGHTER, MAN AND MACHINE, EAST AND WEST, BRITAIN AND EMPIRE”

TIME OUT

“BOLD, PLAYFUL AND SCORCHINGLY AMBITIOUS… HICKSON SUSPENDS THE NORMAL RULES OF REALISM TO PURSUE BIG IDEAS… A REMARKABLE PLAY THAT… CONTAINS ONE OF THE BEST THEATRICAL MOTHER-DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIPS OF RECENT YEARS”

GUARDIAN