TERRA FIRMA is set in a not-so-distant Beckettian future–years after a conflict known as the Big War, in which a tiny kingdom wrestles with the problems of running a nation–and opposing notions of what makes a citizen, a country, and a civilization. The play is inspired by a real-life event and its aftermath: In 1960s Britain, a retired WWII army major claimed an abandoned aircraft platform in international waters off the coast of Essex as his own sovereign nation, planted his flag, and coined a motto, E Mare Libertas! (From the Sea, Freedom!).
