"  History comprises everything that happened before now, from two armies clashing in battle 3000 years ago, to two cats enjoying an egg supper yesterday."

The Chairperson

 

Living history helps.

Significantly in human relation to the past - once something has happened, if we did not experience it first-hand or on film or photograph we tend to lack the imagination – both as we get older and when we are too young to comprehend - to appreciate, learn from and subsequently act upon the experience.

We find it very difficult to “see beyond the garden fence” in to the gardens of our neighbours, our neighbours neighbours and our neighbours neighbours neighbours neighbours who live in France half the year, and have let the slugs run riot over the cabbage patch.

Living history prevents suffering.

The ability to learn from one’s past actions is a crucial factor in determining one’s own constancy. One’s own pain free and happy constancy. When we thrust sodden fingers through the translucent glowing dome of a lightbulb and suffer the force of an electric shock so strong it sends us smashing backwards in to the Welsh Dresser, we make a mental note not to do it again (after regaining consciousness).

If we had the chance to see exactly the same thing happen to our Grandfather fifty years previously then we would hopefully not have made the same mistake ourselves.

Re-Living History is relieving history.

In order to facilitate an appreciation for, comprehension of and inspiration from the past i.e. History, - it is much more accessible and understandable for historical events to be enacted again before our eyes.

There is a danger to re-enacting war.

History consists not of military events alone, as some historians would have us believe. When focusing on war we forget that the vast majority of our lives are made up of peaceful moments of non-violent activities. For this reason we purposefully abstain from performing re-enactments of military engagements, army life and scenes on Crimewatch.

History is not only the leaders, the soldiers and the record breakers.

Oliver Cromwell led the abolition of the English monarchy in 1649; but in 1989 Gaul Grey’s Grandma let him sit in the front seat of a car for the first time. Such acts as this deserve equal recognition through repetition as those associated with the celebrities of history. The SOIREE therefore endeavours to stage accurate re-enactments of the most humble, worthy and insignificant acts generally associated with “The Little People.”

We’re only human.

Ask a person what they know about Winston Churchill and they will probably tell you that he was the man responsible for successfully governing Britain to victory against the enemy in the Second World War. However, not many people will tell you that he sometimes put his jumper on back-to-front by mistake.

Ask a person what they know about Florence Nightingale AKA The Lady Of The Lamp and they will probably tell you that she was the woman responsible for founding the modern nursing profession. But not many people will tell you that on at least one occasion she once thought there was someone stood behind her when there wasn’t.

It is because of these points that The SOIREE actively seeks to perform re-enactments of some of the lesser know moments of history which in the view of most historians are “insignificant” but which in our view are realistic, human and true.

Significance is a stick with a golden handle.

Seeing sight of something significant to someone can be equally as insignificant a sight to the someone standing next to them. In other words: Significance is in the eye of the beholder.

Bunting is living. To bunt is to be.

There can be no greater expression of our collective joy to be alive than the application of bunting to the rafters of a building or the lampposts of a street, and for this reason the use of bunting is actively encouraged at all society events. Bunting has the power to transcend history, save lives and transform church halls.

¡Viva las Tombolas!

At modern day British social gatherings, use of the tombola is in rapid decline. The SOIREE is fighting to reverse this, so that future generations can experience the wonder and excitement that comes with unfolding a numbered ticket taken from the darkness inside a hexagonal spinning drum.


Bullet History is made by everyone Bullet

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