Oil (NHB Modern Plays) - Softcover

Ella Hickson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1848426038 ISBN 13: 9781848426030

Publisher: Nick Hern Books, 2016

Synopsis

The Bronze Age. The Iron Age. The Age of Oil.

The Stone Age didn't end for want of stones.

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, Oil premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2016.

About this title

Review:

Ella Hickson's remarkable new play... bold, playful and scorchingly ambitious... Oil suspends the normal rules of realism to pursue big ideas, yet contains one of the best theatrical mother-daughter relationships of recent years. --Guardian

Magnificent...A pointedly femme-centric affair, that draws deliberately provocative parallels between the age of oil and the age of female emancipation... An audacious epic... A huge, ambitious study of co-dependency: mother and daughter, man and machine, east and west, Britain and empire. --Time Out

Ella Hickson's new play is certainly about the commodity identified in its title, but it's also concerned with the relationships of mothers and daughters, the cost of imperialism and definitions of progress. It links the advance of feminism and the dwindling of capitalism, as well as tracing changes in the balance of power between east and west... An audacious and craftily self-referential piece, which mixes prickly humour with a mischievous intelligence. --Evening Standard

A seriously ambitious, intelligent play, that is never afraid to explore either ideas or emotions... starts out in 1889 and runs through to several decades from now, stopping off at five strategic points along the way.... Thought-provoking on numerous levels, challenging and rewarding, it also provides wonderful roles for two women. --British Theatre Guide

About the Author:

Ella Hickson's previous plays include Wendy & Peter Pan for the RSC, Boys, Precious Little Talent and Eight.

About this edition

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1848426038
• ISBN 13: 9781848426030
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128