Terra Firma
eBook - ePub

Terra Firma

  1. 108 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Terra Firma

About this book

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.

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Yes, you can access Terra Firma by Barbara Hammond in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & Civics & Citizenship. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Act One

SCENE ONE

Terra Firma.
Pre-dawn. Late summer in a northern climate.
The sound of metal against metal. Low and rumbling. From time to time.
The low boom of explosions in the distance.
The harsh wind whistles across the platform.
Also, the sound of sloshing: a quiet slosh-slosh as the sea laps against the pillars of Terra Firma.
JONES is at the pulley, in a lather with the effort of hoisting.
The sound of efforts from below answer JONES’s grunts.
The sounds are threatening and the thump of body blows is heard.
As the hoist winch rises above the platform, we see its cargo: two men, ROY and the HOSTAGE, locked in a bear hug.
JONES releases the two from the hoist, and they roll to the ground. They continue to battle, until with JONES’s enthusiastic help, ROY subdues the HOSTAGE.
At last they are all spent: sweaty, bloody, sea-soaked.
This was not a thought-out kidnapping but an inspired idea.
ROY and JONES tie HOSTAGE to a chair and put a cloth in his mouth.
ROY: Check his pockets!
JONES finds the HOSTAGE’s papers, crumbs, an empty flask, a torch, various bits of rope and flings each item to the ground.
They shine the torch in his face.
ROY: Aha!
ROY exclaims each find, no matter how minor.
HOSTAGE: Nma.
ROY: Hmm!
HOSTAGE: Nma.
ROY: What be your name?
HOSTAGE: Ut.
ROY: Check the coat – yes. Yes.
JONES checks HOSTAGE’s pockets.
HOSTAGE: Namanna.
A knife is found.
JONES: A blade! Sharp enough to slit a man’s throat.
HOSTAGE: Mmma!
ROY: Who sent you? Where are you from?
HOSTAGE: Urmannamm—
JONES: He looks foreign.
HOSTAGE: Rremamna.
ROY: Did you travel a great distance–
JONES: Shall I write this down?
ROY: Word for word.
JONES gets bit of paper and stub of a pencil.
HOSTAGE: Mmmaa.
ROY: We must establish who you are, where you’re from, and what be your value!
JONES writes this down.
JONES: “We” “Must” “Establish” “Who” “You” Are”
HOSTAGE: Uptamma.
JONES: Will I take that out of your mouth –
JONES takes cloth out of HOSTAGE’s mouth.
The HOSTAGE hollers.
HOSTAGE: Aaargh!!
JONES covers HOSTAGE’s mouth.
HOSTAGE bites him.
JONES hits him.
JONES: Bizhen!
They get cloth back in HOSTAGE’s mouth.
HOSTAGE: Rrrr.
ROY: Bizhen!
(To HOSTAGE.)
We mean you no harm, you hear me?
We just want to talk.
HOSTAGE: Mna?
JONES: About the attacks.
HOSTAGE is still.
And who’s behind ‘em.
ROY: Now. Easy. Easy.
JONES removes cloth again.
There. First things first. What were you doing in the territorial waters of Terra Firma? Reconnaissance? For the enemy?
The HOSTAGE has an accent foreign to ROY and JONES.
HOSTAGE: Fishing. For Cod.
ROY: I beg your pardon?
HOSTAG...

Table of contents

  1. Front Cover
  2. Half-Title Page
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. Act One
  8. Act Two