> I offer one compelling sound-byte from an interview on the local news:
>
>         "Would you re-enact a rape?"
>
> Personally of course I support re-enactments, but I think that this question
> illustrates the depth of emotion that the Williamsburg event inspired, as
> well as the facileness with which TV news can cover it.
>
> Andy Finch
> AAM
> [log in to unmask]
 
Of course in one sense, rapes are reenacted all the time, in movies and
theatrical productions.  Which leads to the deeper question of how a
reenactment differs from other kinds of theater.
 
We are used to graphic gore in movies, but would it be appropriate to
stage a Civil War battle reenactment with the kinds of prosthetic
gore used in civil defense training exercises, to accurately simulate
real battlefield injuries?  I doubt it... just as I doubt that
there could ever be a Williamsburg-type recreation of a concentration
camp, though we have seen them many times on stage and screen.
 
The difference seems to be of emotional intensity, for the audience,
and even more for the participant.  What struck me most about the
the Williamsburg slave auction reenactment were the statements from
the reenacters that the experience had changed their lives.  That,
I think, was sufficient justification for attempting this kind of
controversial living theater.
 
       +------------------------------+------------------------+
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