Negotiating contested heritages through theatre and storytelling

This chapter examines the social and cultural work that theatrical performance and storytelling can do to negotiate contested cultural heritages and memory in two specific geographical contexts. The geographical contexts are Northern Ireland, where deep-rooted divisions between Catholics and Protestants remain a fact of life, and the border region between Bavaria and Bohemia, where the historical conflict between Germans and Czechs continues to have an impact on their relationship to this day. As part of heritage festivals, theatre and storytelling can provide people with a sense of history, community, generations and with a sensitivity to spoken language and its importance to intangible cultural heritage. German–Czech relations are characterised by a relatively high degree of cross-border co-operation in a variety of fields from trade to infrastructure and education. The Theatre of Witness and Cojc projects each provide a space to ‘reimagine community and reanimate ethical relationships’ in contexts where cultural heritage are contested.