First published in 2019 by Oberon Books Ltd
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Copyright Barbara Hammond 2019
Barbara Hammond is hereby identified as author of this play in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The author has asserted her moral rights.
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PB ISBN: 9781786829610
E ISBN: 9781786829627
Cover image: Nelson Hancock
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Printed on FSC accredited paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Prince Michael of Sealand and his parents,
Roy Bates and Princess Joan, may they rest in peace.
A LITTLE HISTORY OF TERRA FIRMA
Terra Firma: noun, solid ground; dry land .
As I write, relatives in New Orleans are taking shelter in case the levees overflow, my hometown New York City is rattled after another failure of the power grid while LA is shaken by the aftermath of not one but two earthquakes last week, Hong Kong protesters continue their stand-off with police, dozens are dead in Nepal after flooding from monsoon rains, and in India, where temperatures soared above 120 last month, the government has announced it is going to the moon.
I have been looking for a metaphor for the human predicament for as long as Ive been a playwright, and found one in an unlikely place an anti-aircraft platform in the North Sea, twelve miles off the coast of England, known (to those who know it exists) as Sealand, the worlds smallest nation.
It started like this: in the late 1960s a retired WWII British Army Major called Roy Bates took over the empty platform, 60 feet above the sea, scrambled aboard by rope ladder with his family, declared his wife Princess and his two children heirs to the throne (which had yet to be built). Fifty years later, his son, Prince Michael, met with me in Essex to tell me how they achieved this feat of derring-do (it wasnt easy), and why the Bates family were able to hold onto Sealand despite invasions from nefarious foreigners, hostage-takings, diplomatic interventions, and, most recently, the monarchs death, for over half a century. Sealand has a flag, a constitution, an anthem and a football team, and both takes its history and its legacy seriously and sees the humor in its very existence (Sealands first marathon took place on a treadmill) something very few nations can claim to be able to do.
A commission from the Royal Court and a Lippmann Family Travel Grant from New Dramatists then gave me the resources I needed to go to Sealand and its treacherous seas, experience its isolation and hubris and come back with a tale to tell and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play with the questions, not only of what a nation is and what citizenship means, but what we are doing here in the first place and what will become of us.
In the tradition of Russian yurodivy, or holy fools, the play strives with imaginary insanity to reveal the insanity of the world.
Every day in the news something reminds me of this play the Iran nuclear deal, the negotiations between North Korea, China and the U.S., the Irish borders role in Brexit, the immigration crisis at the U.S./Mexico border the grandstanding, the personal overshadowing the political, the good intentions thwarted and the hope renewed when people come together on a playing field or on a stage this marvelous, terrible, beautiful and high-stakes game has all of us sometimes feeling like we are bobbing along at the mercy of nature, governments -- and one another.
The humor in this play comes mainly from its characters taking themselves too seriously. We think because they are small that they shouldnt, but, as Roy says: You think big and its big. The worse things get for the inhabitants of Terra Firma, the more dire the forecast, the more they double down in their beliefs, their delusions and their pride. In the end what they have is the moment and each other. Maybe its all any of us will ever have, and maybe that in itself is more than enough.
Barbara Hammond,
14 July 2019
Undoubtedly philosophers are in the right when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison.
Jonathan Swift, Gullivers Travels
I think everybody knows were nice people really but they know full well that if they try and invade us there will be a bloodbath.
Roy Bates, founder of Sealand
So even if what we say has no Substance it can still have Meaning. If we believe in it strongly enough.
The Queens line from an early draft of this play
CAST
ROY , 50s, founder of the micro-nation of Terra Firma and its de facto King. He has a noticeable facial scar.
QUEEN , 40s, Roys beloved wife and Head of State. Author of the Constitution.
JONES , the Citizen, head of perimeter defense, general munitions expert, and Roys best mate. Both Jones and Roy are veterans of the War.
HOSTAGE , a fisherman of unknown origin and a foreign intruder in Terra Firma waters
TEDDY , the royal couples 17-year-old son and Prince Regent to the crown.
DIPLOMAT , Self-appointed negotiator for the Hostages release. An amateur boxer in his youth. Both his ancient and recent history are murky.
TIME
The not-so-distant future
SETTING
A War era naval defense platform in the Vast Sea. It consists of a six thousand square foot rusty steel deck sitting on two concrete cylinders that rise 60 feet above the water.
It is one of eight platforms in the vicinity. The others are uninhabited.
Terra Firma is in terra nullius [land belonging to no one], and was claimed by Roy and his young family many, many years ago as their sovereign nation. No existing nation bothered to contest this claim, or even perhaps knew the claim had been made, as the War had been over for decades, the platform appeared to be insignificant and uninhabitable, and, frankly, they all had their own problems.
Terra Firma was first performed at The Rose Nagelberg Theatre at Baruch Performing Arts Center by The COOP, New York City on 27 September 2019 with the following cast:
T. Ryder Smith | THE DIPLOMAT |
Tom OKeefe | THE HOSTAGE |
John Keating | JONES |
