[13] Whilst previous works had garnered a positive critical response Peeling was lavished with praise from several major press outlets.
[14] Joyce Macmillan in The Scotsman labelled it a "minor feminist masterpiece" whilst The Herald called it "one of the most entertaining and provocative shows around this year".
[23] O'Reilly's next major staged production came in 2008, in the form of The Almond and the Seahorse originally shown at Sherman Theatre before going on a national tour.
But this play goes far beyond simply providing a platform for the playwright's political agenda: this is a powerful drama, beautifully written, which says as much about the universal themes of life, love, death and devotion as it does about disability.
"[25] Mainstream newspapers also raved about the production, with The Guardian giving it 5 stars and describing it as an "unmissable drama," while The Stage said: "The contrasts of mood and pace in the confrontations are beautifully handled, the sensitive ensemble work is quite superb.
"[26][27] 2010's Told by the Wind, which was a collaboration with Phillip Zarrilli and Jo Shapland, marked a decidedly experimental turn, where O'Reilly could flex her dramturgical muscles.
The show has no dialogue and incorporates elements of dance and post-dramatic aesthetics of East Asia, giving the piece a "meditative" quality.
The piece is experimental in form, with "no plot, narrative or characterisation to speak of" (The Guardian) incorporating access elements into the aesthetic such as sign language.
[31] Through "cut and paste" monologues, the play directly confronts stereotypes and barriers placed on disabled people, often inverting these; at one point a whole speech is delivered solely in British Sign Language so the majority of the audience won't be able to understand it.
[34] The Stage were less effusive, awarding it 3 stars: "captivating as this often is, the mythic elements of the play don't always sit easy with the harder, nastier things at the core of this story.
The play addresses issues of ageing and end-of-life scenarios, encompassing an integrated cast spanning 3 generations of women in a fictional family.
[3] Disability Arts Online concluded: "It's a play that you carry with you; its poignance and linguistic beauty and its clever, irreverent and oddly (considering the subject matter) life-affirming message."
[37] She told the British Council in a recent video interview "[in the 1980s] I was very involved in the disability civil rights movement, campaigning for equal access to public buildings, education and opportunities...I am incredibly disappointed at how little has changed.
"[37] O'Reilly has also been vocally critical of the casting of non-disabled actors in disabled roles ('cripping up') and told Gender Forum (an internet-based academic journal) in 2005 that "cripping up is the twenty-first century's answer to blacking up".