Upton Sinclair

First published in 1927, "Oil!" is an unflinching portrayal of greed and betrayal by Pulitzer Prize winning author Upton Sinclair. Famous for his groundbreaking work "The Jungle", which exposed the horribly unsafe conditions in the American meatpacking industry, Sinclair turned his critical eye toward the immorality of the emerging oil-drilling business. Set in Southern California and inspired by the Teapot Dome Scandal, "Oil!" follows the fortunes...

A down-and-out silver miner raising a son, self-made oilman Daniel Plainview has a voracious appetite for oil and it turns him into a California tycoon in the early years of the 20th century. Getting the oil from the ground is an intensely physical process that later broadens into Plainview's equally indomitable urge to control land and power. Along the way, Plainview deals with a mighty derrick fire, a visit from a long-lost brother, the ongoing...

David Schwimmer and Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre Company created this innovative and heart-wrenching adaptation of Upton Sinclair's powerhouse novel, in a co-production with L.A. Theatre Works. A young Lithuanian immigrant, full of hope, arrives in Chicago in 1904 to work in the stockyards. He and his family soon find themselves processed like the very cattle they slaughter, by the system they dreamed would save them. Recorded at the Guest Quarters...