This world premiere production of Ella Hickson’s production, sees director Carrie Cracknell making her Almeida debut. But what have critics been saying about it? 

The Guardian: **** “contains one of the best theatrical mother-daughter relationships of recent years.”

The Independent: **** “The play will, I suspect, divide audiences but I’m not complaining when I say that I can’t get it out of my mind.”

Evening Standard:**** “audacious and craftily self-referential piece, which mixes prickly humour with a mischievous intelligence.”

WhatsOnStage: *** “while this play offers some great insights into a mother-daughter relationship, and sheds some light on the early days of British oil exploitation in Iran, it sits rather uncertainly between family drama and political narrative, without the two merging quite as seamlessly as they might.”

The Times: *** “it does have the hallmarks of a long, hard birth, being overcomplicated and overly layered.”

The Stage: ** “It’s a play that is likely to divide audiences, and while I admired it, I couldn’t enjoy it.”

The Telegraph: *** “For all the focus of Carrie Cracknell’s production, and striking interlude imagery of oilfields, refineries and whatnot, the abrupt gearshifts and jalopy-like nature of the thing grows more glaring.”

Culture Whisper: **** “Ella Hickson has a stylish and ambitious smash with Oil” 

Theatre Cat: *** “If you left at the interval, you’d probably have better conversations in the car home. It had a fiery start, but unfortunately ran out of fuel.”

Broadway World: **** “If it becomes unwieldy in places, it’s still a rich and absorbing piece of work, and an all-too-rare female odyssey.”

London Theatre.co.uk: ** “sometimes feels like there are five plays struggling to get out here; each of the five acts could be a play in itself. If it’s sometimes hard to keep up, it’s even harder to care.”

Time Out: **** “It is an audacious piece of writing that partly thrills via the sheer audacity of being a generation-skipping epic about oil and feminism.”

British Theatre Guide: “provides wonderful roles for Anne-Marie Duff and Yolanda Kettle as well as a challenging but rewarding evening for its audience.”

Oil Plays at the Almeida Theatre until the 26th November. For more information and to book tickets visit: https://www.almeida.co.uk/whats-on/oil/7-oct-2016-26-nov-2016.