London's Elephants - No. 5 in the series
Anyone who has been tuned in to London News would have guessed that I would bring you the Sultan's Elephant today.
For those that can't get here. let me briefly sum up the experience. This is street theatre at its best. It involves and touches people in thousands of different ways. The sight of the buckled road where the spacecraft has landed astonishes the viewer and sets the expectation that something great is going to happen. When the alien girl appears, spontaneous applause breaks out, and she is off on her exploration.
Meanwhile, the magnificent elephant, who has been sleeping for some time, is waking and is walking around Horse Guards Parade, looking realistic in every way including the ability to squirt water! The story will unfold over the weekend. I think it is particularly fun that this french troupe started the show - invasion? - in Waterloo Place.
I should mention that the Londonist put me on to this som edays ago, and they have a video of the elephant here. Lots of bloggers love the elephant!
Click for No 1 in the series.
Click for No 2 in the series.
Click for No 3 in the series.
Click for No 4 in the series.
posted by Ham at 00:52 --
Comments here: 13
Comments on "London's Elephants - No. 5 in the series"
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Louise Starkey said ... (10:25) :
post a commentFabulous!!!!!
The trunk is horrible. Ele's trunks are their cutest part. Except this one's.
How much did it cost, and who's paying?
BW, they managed to get naturalistic moves into most of the rest (especially the ears!) and to be fair they manage the action and articulation quite well - just not very well.
I couldn't find out exactly who is paying but I'm sure it costs a LOT and I was told when I asked one of the people that looked like they knew something there is a Euro grant and London money involved
this is the coolest of all and very impressive image too
That is AMAZING, almost frightening, truly great. Thanks for showing us..
L
excellent.
regarding the cost. i completely understand how others might be annoyed that hard earned tax cash could fund a seemingly frivolous project.
on the other hand, despite the costs, it's a real lift from the daily hum-drum.. gives people a bit of excitement and fires the imagination, doesn't it?
to me, that's priceless.
as a yank i know the US gov. would never (esp. when it comes to the arts!)fund such a project but would certainly give allowance to corp. box stores like Wal-Mart/Starbucks to grow like melanoma.
enjoy it UKers.... it's quite remarkable.
thanks again Ham for all of your efforts put into such a great blog. well worth the daily visit i make.
~ rico bandito
Outstanding post today. The explanation and links were the best. Specifically, the ExtraSpecialTreat photos were great. Your DailyMotion movie created from stills was very impressive. Thanks for presenting this to us. It must have been a lot of work and with no public funding for LDP.
Ham, i swear, i was looking at the 8 oçlock news, half an hr ago, and your elephant was in it!
I love your elephant series! Great photo this one. Somehow it reminds me about Terry Pratchett’s Disc world cowers. Must be surrealistic experience to see this almost monstrous elephant in “live”.
Rico - I agree, and I don't have a problem with the money at all, in fact I'm proud that we still can do things like this in London. In Paris and so many other places these things happen without a need to justify each step of the economics.
Denton - thanks, maybe I should apply for an Arts Council Grant ;-)
Dutchie - glad he's travelling across the water
plu - thanks, yes, I couldn't help but think of that either - I kept expecting the Librarian to appear at any moment!
Wow, I heard of the elephant before and just couldn't believe it... and there it is, in your blog! Thank you so much for proving it's real, I read a lot about the theatre group now, and hope they'll come close to here one day. =)
wow thats so cool! I never heard of this before - man, I am out of it - need to get with international happenings!
This series is great. I didn't realise London was so keen on Elephants!