Historical Re-enactment is the ‘staging’ of an event or activity from the past. It is the performance everyday life and events from the past in a ‘theatrical collusion’ between performer and audience. Re-enactments can be specific re-creations of historical events – such the  2004 re-enactment of the 1804 Battle of Vinegar Hill. However they can also be small performances of daily activities from the past – such as cooking, eating, sewing, or blacksmithing. These performances show how objects and artefacts from the past were used in their context. Other re-enactment performances can be ‘scenes’ or ‘vignettes’ of activities from the past such as working, farming, socialising, or playing cricket 1809 rules.

Re-enactment can be scripted or impromptu. They can be undertaken in ‘character’ – performing ‘as if’ someone from the past – or can be done silently, like ‘ghost walkers’ across a modern landscape.

Reenactors and re-enactments also increasingly appear in film and television. Historical documentaries and ‘reality history’ shows often rely on the skills of reenactors to visualise the past.

Re-enactments can be seriously authentic, yet sometimes playful. Historical reenactment is an accessible, entertaining and educational way of generating historical understanding. Re-enactments create spaces for people to draw important connections, and discontinuities, between their presents and their pasts.