
Oil
Presented by Sydney Theatre Company
Sat, 4th November to Mon, 18th December '23 in 5 weeks. Wharf 1 Theatre, Walsh Bay.
An epic, globe-trotting, century-crossing night of theatrical magic that explores the deeply relatable bond between a mother and daughter.
Directed by Paige Rattray
In a remote English farmhouse at the end of the nineteenth century, a young woman witnesses the blinding light of an oil lamp for the first time before running into the midwinter night. She's sacrificing the world she knows and the man she loves to build a better life for the daughter she's soon to have. So begins the story of May and Amy.
Written by Ella Hickson – one of Britain's most exciting and boundary-pushing playwrights – Oil explores the deeply relatable bond between a mother and daughter, mapped against the rise and fall of two of modernity's most powerful players: crude oil and the British Empire. Hickson sends her protagonists on a gripping quest from the Industrial Age in Europe, to the Middle East in the 1920s, through to our present moment and into the future, as she asks the question: how much is too much?
Starring Brooke Satchwell in her STC debut and an ensemble cast featuring Jing-Xuan Chan, Callan Colley, Charlotte Friels and Anne Tenney, Oil sets small lives adrift in the huge tides of history and wonders what's left when colonialism, fossil fuels and individualism are allowed to burn unchecked.
Directed by STC Associate Director Paige Rattray (The Lifespan of a Fact, Blithe Spirit) and presented in the Wharf's new in-the-round configuration, this production promises an epic, globe-trotting, century-crossing night of theatrical magic.
Directed by Paige Rattray

Wharf 1 Theatre
The Wharf is Sydney Theatre Company's home base located in Walsh Bay. Alongside our administrative and creative areas, we have two theatres in which we present our work — Wharf 1 Theatre and Wharf 2 Theatre. Visitors to The Wharf can also soak in the sweeping views of Sydney Harbour at The Theatre Bar at the End of the Wharf.
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