MARIA DUARTE recommends a remarkable study of the friendship between a Palestinian and a Pakistani, broken by a hostile state
Latest editorial
The true cost of ‘black gold’
MAYER WAKEFIELD recommends a sharply nuanced drama on generations subjugated by oil exploitation
MATTHEW HAWKINS rakes through un-fancy words and flair-free summaries to find who and what might be flamboyant
PETER MASON is exhilarated by an exciting, well-considered and historically minded tribute to the great Trinidadian instrument
Reducing historical lives to ‘male’ and ‘female’ roles, we lose the nuance of those lives and a clearer understanding of past societies, suggests CLAIRE ISABELLA GILMOUR
CHRIS SEARLE relishes the genius of pianist Alexander Hawkins, his many ensembles, and his new album
Oil
Almeida Theatre
London N1
4/5
NO WONDER it took Ella Hickson over six years to write Oil.
Her exploration of Britain’s relationship with the black gold is so wide in scope that, in just under three hours, Hickson guides her audience from Cornwall in 1889 to a bleak, mid-21st-century dystopian Britain via Persia, Libya and beyond.
Similar stories
SIMON PARSONS applauds the timely revival of a play about solidarity and betrayal within Britain’s Pakistani community
KEITH RICHMOND relishes a superbly conceived modern version of Aeschylus’ drama of murderous family succession
PAUL FOLEY revels in the coolest, most joyful piece of theatre you’ll get this summer
MAYER WAKEFIELD is gripped by a production dives rapidly from champagne-quaffing slick to fraying motormouth