The idea of The Society Of Insignificant Re-Enactment Events was conceived at a public meeting, convened under the directions of his notable personage Thomas Leopold Pantheon Adamski, on Boxing Day December 2009 Upstairz at the County Arms pub in Northallerton, North Yorkshire.

On that auspicious day, the first historical issue which attracted our attention was: What would Jesus do…in-between all the miracles?

The founding members then went on to re-enact-out a number of scenarios from the day-to-day life of our supposed saviour and, delightfully, far from being seen as a blasphemous outrage by religious types, what we actually managed to portray for them was a side of the shepherd that was human and, as a consequence, believable. For the public it seemed, being able to watch a re-enactment of the time when Jesus of Nazareth drank too much and ralphed on his sandals gave the Son of God humility.

The overnight success of this initial re-enactment inspired further work, in the form of a 90 minute re-enactment epic: ‘The Constipation of Christ.’ Performed to captivated crowds at Church Fetes around the UK and Ireland.

It was at this point the society took time to pause and reassess. “Why,” we wondered, “Why despite our wish to counter this glamorisation through dramatisation have we still chosen to focus re-enactments on one of the biggest historical celebrities, Jesucristo?”

We then turned our thoughts to another theme: The Recognition Of The Little People. The General Public, whose lives are just as deserving of historical referencing through recreation as the lives of history’s big names, are vastly underrepresented at living history displays, in factual historical television programmes and films.

Our first performance of this kind was a re-enactment from society member Christopher Biscuits’ past, titled “The Horrific Pony Trek.” In which we staged a full scale reproduction of the event when, as a 9 year old boy, Christopher went pony trekking, only to find it one of the most terrifying experiences of his life and one which reduced him to tears. “The pony just kept trying to eat the grass. I was supposed to pull it’s reigns up to stop it, but it wouldn’t stop. It just wouldn’t stop. It would not stop*.”

Audiences left the showing with a new found appreciation of the awesome bridled power of a pony and an awareness of the fact that oppressing an animal in to doing something it does not want to do comes at a price.

*Many thanks go to Menwith Hill Pony Club for the kind donation of their Ponies for the whole 18 day re-enactment.

www.thesoiree.org.uk