The best ideas are often completely bonkers. Let's bring a 16-foot marionette and a 42-tonne time-travelling mechanical elephant to the heart of London and then tell a story by walking them round the streets for three days. That's exactly what French theatre company Royal de Luxe are doing this weekend, and their concept, technical expertise and execution are quite brilliant. The spectacle was premiered in the French cities of Nantes and Amiens last year (to commemorate the centenary of Jules Verne's death) and later in the year you can catch the giant beast in Antwerp, Calais and Le Havre. But right now the Sultan's Elephant is touring central London, and it's unmissable.
On Thursday a wooden space capsule appeared overnight in Waterloo Place, just above The Mall. Steam billowed from the (utterly convincing) cracked tarmac throughout the day, and Londoners gathered around to gawp and to take photographs. Then yesterday the metal hatch opened and a small girl emerged. OK, so she was four times the size of a normal girl, and she was made of wood, and she was being operated by red-suited puppeteers using a big crane and a series of overhead wires, but she was still unmistakeably a small girl. She (and her string-pulling entourage) went for a long walk around town, stopping the traffic along the way, before finally ending up at Horseguards Parade. Here she met and greeted the Sultan and his giant elephant, like you do, before settling down for an afternoon nap in a giant deckchair. The scene was set.
I caught up with the story as Big Ben struck five. An ever-increasing crowd had gathered around the sleeping travellers, most of them families with small children or passing civil servants, fresh from a savage reshuffle. An open-topped red London bus entered the arena, and the giant girl slowly awoke. A crane hoisted her carefully onto the top deck of the bus as the elephant rose slowly, majestically to its feet. It roared, shook its head and waved its trunk in an utterly lifelike manner. The crowd were captivated, and struggled to take as many photographs as possible of the stirring beast. And then the performers headed off on a short tour of the St James's area, first the bus and then the elephant. Operators sat precariously beneath the giant head to control the trunk movements, while on the ground one man's job was to lift the elephant's feet forward one at a time to enable it to make progress. Meanwhile the sultan and his courtiers surveyed the crowd from their platform on the elephant's back, or drank tea and made small talk on the balconies to either side.
Where the elephant went, the crowd followed. They watched from the grassy lawns of St James' Park, and massed around the beast in the wider spaces of The Mall. Stewards clutching red tape helped to seal off a moveable exclusion zone both in front and to the rear as the elephant passed through. A band of musicians playing loud magical Eastern-style jazz followed on a truck behind, adding to to the very special atmosphere. Children stood in awe and wonder, while every cameraphone in the vicinity was being pressed into use. And every few minutes the elephant showed off its party trick, waving its trunk towards the onlookers and squirting them with a fine spray of water. At least I hope it was water because I got a soaking.
And that was just yesterday. The story continues today with further London sightseeing and an official civic reception in Trafalgar Square, then tomorrow there's lunch in Piccadilly and a wander through St James Park before the over-sized entourage finally departs. Do go and see the Sultan's Elephant if you can. If the look on the faces of the crowd yesterday are anything to go by, you'll leave with a big grin on your face and memories to last a lifetime.
The best ideas are often completely bonkers. Let's bring a 16-foot marionette and a 42-tonne time-travelling mechanical elephant to the heart of London and then tell a story by walking them round the streets for three days. That's exactly what French theatre company Royal de Luxe are doing this weekend, and their concept, technical expertise and execution are quite brilliant. The spectacle was premiered in the French cities of Nantes and Amiens last year (to commemorate the centenary of Jules Verne's death) and later in the year you can catch the giant beast in Antwerp, Calais and Le Havre. But right now the Sultan's Elephant is touring central London, and it's unmissable.
I caught up with the story as Big Ben struck five. An ever-increasing crowd had gathered around the sleeping travellers, most of them families with small children or passing civil servants, fresh from a savage reshuffle. An open-topped red London bus entered the arena, and the giant girl slowly awoke. A crane hoisted her carefully onto the top deck of the bus as the elephant rose slowly, majestically to its feet. It roared, shook its head and waved its trunk in an utterly lifelike manner. The crowd were captivated, and struggled to take as many photographs as possible of the stirring beast. And then the performers headed off on a short tour of the St James's area, first the bus and then the elephant. Operators sat precariously beneath the giant head to control the trunk movements, while on the ground one man's job was to lift the elephant's feet forward one at a time to enable it to make progress. Meanwhile the sultan and his courtiers surveyed the crowd from their platform on the elephant's back, or drank tea and made small talk on the balconies to either side.
