barbara hammond

Set in the not-so-distant future, TERRA FIRMA takes place years after a conflict known as The Big War, where a tiny kingdom wrestles with the problems of running a nation, and spars with different concepts of what makes a citizen, a country and a civilization. 

The play is inspired by a real life event and its aftermath: In the 1960’s a retired WWII army major in the United Kingdom claimed an abandoned aircraft platform in international waters off the coast of Essex as his own sovereign nation, planted his flag, declared his wife Princess and their motto E Mare Libertas! 'From the Sea, Freedom!"  TERRA FIRMA was originally a commission for the Royal Court Theatre and was produced off-Broadway by THE COOP.

Photo: Ashley Garrett Photography

A play about the most famous performance art piece in history.  Pussy Riot was an anonymous Russian collective of young women whose goal was to protest the illegal 2012 presidential elections through the disruptive force of punk. A 48-second performance in the Christ the Saviour Church got them two years in prison.  The spectacle was fueled by an unparalleled P.R. campaign from all sides that pit Church against State, East against West and Youth against Tradition.  The story is told by a Troupe of “Yurodivy” who come from the Orthodox tradition of saints who, in the Russian hymn, strive “with imaginary insanity to reveal the insanity of the world.”

Photo: Seth Freeman

An Irish ex-pat returns home from her rebellious life in Paris accustomed to a life free of social constraints. A reunion with her mother forces her to make a choice that has irreparable consequences.  We move with Eva through foreign cities and forbidden landscapes: sea, brothel, prison. A mountain wood.  How do you stand up for what you know to be true when the world asks you to compromise at every turn? 

Photo: Jennifer Reiley

A small American town wrestles with whether to put a cross or a cellphone tower on its only hilltop --  as the local prison warden's friendship deepens with a young man on death row. 

Visible from Four States sits at the modern crossroads of belief and communication, and asks if an individual can carry the moral burden of a nation.

Set in Northern Ireland at the brink of the twenty-first century, and populated by Dubliners in search of a home in the North, this modern Irish play explores that ribbon of border that separates countries, lovers, brothers and friends.