Did you know that your version of Internet Explorer is out of date?
To get the best possible experience using our website we recommend downloading one of the browsers below.

Internet Explorer 10, Firefox, Chrome, or Safari.

Jan 7, 2020

« Back to News

ARC Celebrates 20th Anniversary with Canadian Premiere of Ella Hickson's Gripping Play Oil

ARC Celebrates 20th Anniversary with Canadian Premiere of Ella Hickson's Gripping Play Oil

Tickets on sale now.

Toronto, ON – January 7, 2020 – ARC today announced that it will present the Canadian Premiere of Ella Hickson’s ambitious play OIL as part of the company’s 20th anniversary season. ARC is a Toronto-based artist-run theatre company committed to bringing top international contemporary plays to Canadian audiences. OIL will be directed by ARC Artistic Producer, Christopher Stanton, and Resident Artist Aviva Armour-Ostroff and will star five-time Dora Mavor Moore Award nominee Bahareh Yaraghi. The play will run from February 29 to March 21, 2020 at Geary Lane (360 Geary Ave.) in Toronto. Tickets are now on sale now and for more information visit arcstage.com.

OIL
 follows the lives of May (Bahareh Yaraghi) and her daughter Amy (Samantha Brown) through a swirling collision of empire, history and family. An epic five-part, two-act play spanning 200 years, Hickson's explosive play leaps from the dawn of the industrial age to a futuristic post-petroleum world and beyond.

“Our 20th anniversary will be our biggest year yet and we want to take this opportunity to thank Toronto’s theatre community and our audiences for their continued support,” said co-director and ARC Artistic Producer, Christopher Stanton. “We have always strived to tell stories that reflect and engage our audiences, cultivating meaningful conversations around issues central to our productions, and bringing striking international work into a modern Canadian context. As we celebrate our company’s milestone year, we continue this legacy with OIL.”

“We are proud to introduce Canadian audiences to Ella Hickson’s young, fierce, and ambitious voice,” said co-director Aviva Armour-Ostroff. “While the play explores empire and industry through a UK lense, it deeply resonates with the issues in our own Canadian history where there is a long and disturbing legacy of resource extraction.”

Samantha Brown and Bahareh Yaraghi will share the stage with an incredible ensemble of actors including ARC Resident Artists Deborah Drakeford (Ma Singer), Carlos Gonzalez-Vio (Joss)and Ryan Hollyman (Thomas), as well as actors Vladimir Alexis (Samuel/Nate), Lily Gao (Fanny/Fan Wang), Shadi Shahkhalili (Anne/Ana/Aminah), Nabil Traboulsi (William Whitcomb/Mr. Farouk). This production also includes music and sound design by Maddie Bautista, set and costume designed by Jackie Chau, video designed by Melissa Joakim, and lighting designed by Nick Blais.

For more information please visit arcstage.com. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased here. General admission is $30. With a limited number of $20 each performance. Tickets are also available at the door while quantities last.

About ARC
ARC is a diverse and multi-disciplined group of Resident Artists — performers, designers, directors, visual artists, musicians, composers, writers, curators, producers, and stage management. ARC takes a rigorous, energetic, socially active, and highly collaborative approach in presenting contemporary international works that have rarely – if ever – been staged in Canada; in re-imagining world theatre “classics;” and in devising original performative work based on global literary sources.

.