Spring 1787, and the exceptional empress, Catherine the Great, is making a royal progress, inspecting her New Russia. Prince Potemkin, her former lover, needs to impress. He is pouring his fortune into building ‘towns’ along the route, but how can he do it fast enough? With a small army of theatrical set builders working on the project, the canvas buildings gradually take on a deceptive permanence. Soon the sham disguises the real, while the real hides the sham.
A young stowaway, Lida, is ambitious to exploit the situation. Is she a child of betrayal, or its mistress? For here in the Crimean hinterland, all is not as it seems.
More new writing from a Network Theatre member!
Network at Large: In 2008, Keith Wait and many of the original cast took Facades "on tour", appearing 23 April-5 May 2008 at The Colour House Theatre, Merton Abbey Mills, and 19-29 May 2008 at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith.