The Netherlands: Tell your story

As part of the storytelling block in The Netherlands, MasterPeace teamed up with the Dutch theatre-maker and storyteller Nick Teunissen to perform his play ‘One-way ticket to Hollandija’ in both the Netherlands as well as in Bosnia. ‘One-way ticket to Hollandija’ tells the story of the brave Ismir who fled the city of Sarajevo through the famous Sarajevo Tunnel, the only way out of the city during the war. The show is a perfect act of twinning, showing Nick’s Dutch view on this very personal Bosnian experience and taking the ‘story home’ as he described it.

Premiers: Amsterdam and at the Tunnel of Hope (Sarajevo)

Nick successfully premiered his show ‘One-way ticket to Hollandija’ in Amsterdam in April. However, for him it was of great importance to also travel to Bosnia and tell the heroic, but emotional story of Ismar. Here, he had the chance to perform in Sarajevo at the Tunnel of Hope Museum and the War Museum, exactly located where the story took place only 25 years ago.

A story of hope, resilience and optimism

The story is about the 20-year-old Ismir Hero who flees the war in Bosnia via the Sarajevo Tunnel to find refuge in the Netherlands. In the years that followed, Ismir has built a successful career as a television director in the Netherlands, however with this heavy past on his shoulders. Nick tells a story of war and post-war from a personal perspective, linking the past to the future and twinning the culture and art scene in both countries.The play is not about the war, but rather a story of hope, resilience and optimism. Theater critics in the Netherlands have awarded this four-star play, calling it “a tribute to the optimism and desire for life of the citizens of Sarajevo”.

The storytelling formula

The story is very successful due to its compelling storytelling formula, the project will continue evolving with the support of local cultural partners, NGOs and embassies, to turn into a tour in another at least seven cities in Bosnia and moving beyond to Serbia / Belgrade. This tour will include workshops and trainings to teach youngsters in Bosnia and the Netherlands on storytelling and add a collective memory, documenting the life in both countries and creating series of storytelling formats and theatre plays around that theme.

And there’s more…

Countries of Bosnia, Georgia, Morocco and The Netherlands already started their work on the building block of storytelling using the techniques developed for the target age group, stories are merged with workshops to showcase the other aspects of ACT! in addition to boosting the confidence of youngsters to tell their stories and share their stories with others.