It was a powerful moment, and I only saw the stage. Alex and Averil, two Dartmouth students working for Youth Bridge Global, took me to see where the performances of Much Ado About Nothing were debuting. We were surprised to discover the courtyard of the bombed out library, their stage, was hosting a concert. We witnessed Bosnians claiming their space and using their voices to transform the rubble into creative destruction.
Even Shakespeare could not predict the post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Dayton Peace Accords solidified the boundaries that divide, these sharp lines now define people based on ethnicity, religion, and language. Mostar has become a playground for nationalistic fervor, easily separating people between the river, leaving Croat Catholics and Bosniak Muslims divided. The three municipalities have created a framework that leaves even the schools segregated, having the students come in separate shifts so that no overlap is possible. The infamous bridge has become a hypocritical symbol, some have never crossed it and thus never spanned the divide. Luckily, Shakespeare has arrived in Mostar towing with him multi-ethinc productions of Romeo and Juliet & Much Ado About Nothing.
Youth Bridge Global can be described in one word, refreshing. It is a creative NGO using applied drama as a tool of peace and reconciliation. Working also in the Marshall Islands (where the US tested nuclear weapons) they then “repeated the Shakespeare model in the Balkans in order to promote reconciliation and mutual understanding across the dangerous ethnic and religious divides that threaten peace in the region. The first production in
Mostar, featuring a Muslim Romeo and a Croat Juliet, forged a number of inter-ethnic friendships and generated immense communal support in a city divided by deep-seated nationalism” (http://think.mtv.com/profile/youthbridgeglobal).
Professor Andrew Garrod, Co-founder of YBG explains, “Romeo and Juliet in this setting has a particular resonance because of the feuding between the different groups in this country and the feuding between the Capulets and the Montague” (www.ybglobal.org/).
I only hope Shakespeare is here to stay.
