A monsterous mechanical mammal lumbered its way through the center of London last week.
The Royal Deluxe theater company from France produced the goose-bump inducing spectacle. The show was titled
The Sultan's Elephant and it consisted of a three story high elephant and a gigantic girl walking around London's biggest squares for four days.
It was really an amazing site. The puppeteers moved the elephant's head side to side, spraying the massive crowds with water from the mammoth's trunk. Apparently the pachyderm also pisses but I was fortunate enough to miss that shower. It reminded me of the
Oliphaunts in Lord of the Rings. People in costume were dancing, fighting and waving from different levels on it's back.
The story has something to do with a sultan trying to chase a girl from his dreams. So he gets a time traveling elephant (what else?) to track her down and follow her throughout time (and the streets of London).
The parade went on for four days but we caught the grande finale, when Jumbo finally catches up with the girl. And then makes out with her...
The girl is placed inside a wooden rocket and set off skyward. I luckily caught the exact moment the elephant's brain exploded all over the crowd of young children...
It's fantastic to see the London government and police force willing to put so much time and money into art and culture for the masses. My friend mentioned also that there was no visible sign of gaudy sponsorship of any kind.
Here are some shots from the end of the day. Sunset over Buckingham Palace. 'Night Queenie.
And the last thing I remember...
UPDATE: Here's
some sub par pics on Flickrfrom our day out from my friend Justin.
Over the past two months I've been working with South Bank Centre in London designing, illustrating and animating characters (farting dogs and belching horses) for the Children's Literature Festival this week. It's been a lot of fun creating characters based on the Chinese calender and then pitting them together in a race towards the finish line.
Poster design by Gaelle Lochner
