Okay, so here’s the thing: I hate historical reenactments. HATE. With a hatred that is both profound and unwavering. It was not until the Big Move To A Country With Lots Of Historical Stuff That I Have To Go Visit, however, that I was able to identify why.
It’s because I’m embarrassed on behalf of the (reen)actors. It’s kind of like when you’re at church or somewhere with amateur performers who are doing, let’s say, not as well as they could, and you can’t look at them because you might accidentally make eye contact and then, as Stephan predicts, compulsively make the universal gesture of disgust, wherein you stab your finger toward the back of your throat and make a gagging noise.
It could happen!
And it’s like highly respected news source The Onion wrote in a recent article “Oh No, Performers Coming Into Audience”: “…It remains unclear how long this horrifying breach of the fourth wall will last, or why the actors worked so hard to create a fictional distance between themselves and the audience if they had no intention of maintaining it.”
Not to mention this one episode of a horrible television show that I heard about once and that no one should ever watch called South Park, in which armed robbers take a historical reenactment Old West town hostage and most of the actors are shot because they refuse to break character.
Don’t worry about me, though: I love historical video reenactments. LOVE. I’m sure I’ve mentioned my high esteem for the video at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. If I had to guess, I would say that it’s the general and inevitable cheese factor necessitated by low budgets that I love, and if the actors are safely behind the fourth wall WHERE THEY BELONG, there is no danger of the aforementioned accidental eye contact and the associated social consequences.
If God had wanted to perpetuate the travesty that is historical reenactment, he wouldn’t have invented the television.
