Oil | Australian Arts Review

In a first for Red Stitch Actors Theatre, the Australian premiere season of Oil by UK playwright Ella Hickson will take place at the Cromwell Road Theatre in South Yarra this November.

From the dawn of the Age of Oil to its demise, May and her daughter Amy blaze across the globe; from Cornwall in 1889 to Tehran in 1908, Hampstead in 1970 and Baghdad in 2021, finally returning to Cornwall in the late 21st century. Their mother-daughter power dynamic shifts, even as the resources that fuel it (and the rest of the world) begin to dwindle.

An explosive play which drills deep into our relationship with this finite resource, Oil exposes the insatiable hunger of humanity as we strive forward, leaving the debris of great deeds and destruction in our wake.

Directed by Red Stitch’s Artistic Director Ella Caldwell (The Antipodes, Fury, Incognito, The Honey Bees), Oil features an extraordinary cast of 10: Darcy Brown (Peddling, Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Henry V), Jing-Xuan Chan (Incognito, The Family Law, Golden Shield), Charlie Cousins (Arms and the Man, The Doctor Blake Mysteries, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea), Daniela Farinacci (A View From The Bridge, Lantana, Look Both Ways), Hannah Fredericksen (Dance Nation, Assassins, Dream Lover: The Bobby Darin Musical), Justin Hosking (Wakey Wakey, The Realistic Joneses, True West), Mathew Whitty (NSFW, Foxfinder, About Tommy and Penelope), Khisraw Jones-Shukoor (Them, Macbeth, The Way Out), Nicole Nabout (Wakey Wakey, Good Muslim Boy, Angel of Mine) and Jennifer Vuletic (My Dearworthy Darling, Suddenly Last Summer, Arbus and West).

Ella Hickson is an award-winning writer whose work has been performed throughout the UK and abroad. Her works include: Swive [Elizabeth], ANNA, The Writer, Wendy & Peter Pan, Riot Girls, Boys, The Authorised Kate Bane, Rightfully Mine, Precious Little Talent, and Hot Mess.

Her debut play Eight (Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 2008) won a Fringe First, the Carol Tambor ‘Best of Edinburgh’ Award and was nominated for an Evening Standard Award. It transferred to the Trafalgar Studios, London, and PS122, New York. Hickson has also written plays for radio and her short film, Hold On Me premiered at the 55th BFI London Film Festival in 2011.

Hickson completed an MA in creative writing at the University of Edinburgh and spent a year working with the Traverse Theatre as their Emerging Playwright on Attachment. She was the 2011 Pearson Playwright in Residence for the Lyric Hammersmith and was the recipient of the 2013 Catherine Johnson Award.

“Bold, playful and scorchingly ambitious…a remarkable play…contains one of the best theatrical mother – daughter relationships of recent years.” – The Guardian

Director: Ella Caldwell Featuring: Darcy Brown, Jing-Xuan Chan, Charlie Cousins, Daniela Farinacci, Hannah Fredericksen, Justin Hosking, Khisraw Jones-Shukoor, Matthew Whitty, Nicole Nabout, Jennifer Vuletic Set Design: Greg Clarke Costume Design: Chloe Greaves Lighting Design: Clare Springett Lighting Consultant: Rachel Burke Sound Design: Daniel Nixon Assistant Director: Shaun Wykes Stage Manager: Jackie Mates Assistant Stage Manager: Tayla Gane