5/10/2006: Royal de Luxe puppets in London

[Undertoad]

The first time we saw this set of giant puppets from the Royal De Luxe was about last year at this time. Last weekend they made their way to London and bargalunan was kind enough to update that previous thread with a set of links to details on this visit, including comprehensive BBC coverage.



There is a story around the elephant and little girl, which the troupe played out over their visit. Part of the story is on the troupe's site. It also explains the "stitched cars" which jinx noticed in the last IotD roundup:

Once upon a time, there lived a sultan who was tormented in his dreams by visions of a little girl who was travelling through time. This is his story, incredible but true.

The sultan could no longer sleep, his growing anguish diverting his attention from affairs of state. In order to cure his sickness, and believing that he would find the girl in the land of dreams, he commissioned an unknown engineer living in 1900 to construct a time-travelling elephant. A few months later, the sultan set off with his court in search of the little giant, which, in the course of his nightmares, had been transformed into a marionette 5 metres high.

The trip was awful, but they found a series of clues as to her wherabouts. The giant loved sewing - she liked to stitch cars to the tarmac, boats to quaysides, trains to railway tracks and sometimes even envelopes to letterboxes.

The elephant followed the trail left by the puppeteers. And as in all love stories, strange things began to happen. Such was his happiness at getting closer to her, he began to expel hundreds of living birds which disappeared into the sky in a burst of joy.

To be continued…

Amazing detail:



...the girl can lick a lollypop.



...the elephant can spray the crowd.



...the elephant can shower the girl.

I want to see it!

photo cred: some images (c) Creative Commons by Colin Gregory Palmer