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Royal De Luxe: The Sultan's Elephant On the 4th of May something incredible happened in Central London. A spaceship appeared to have crash-landed in Waterloo Square. Made from wood and rusty metal, the 30-foot structure had torn a 3 metre hole in the ground and mangled the tarmac for several feet in each direction. It simply sat there steaming as hundreds of people crowded around. People stood around scratching their heads, photographers, TV and Radio all turned up asking questions. Some knew what was coming - most simply didn't understand.
Day two and at one o'clock the top of the spaceship opened up and a "little" girl emerged from the spaceship and began to walk down the road. In truth she was a 25-foot wooden marionette operated by an army of curiously clad Frenchmen, members of Royal de Luxe, who manipulated her to greet the crowd, eyes fluttering and hands waving and walk down the street to the Horse Guards Parade. She moved with precision and grace through the streets of London followed by a truck carrying a French funk/psychadelic rock band. The crowd swelled and frantically chased her down the street as she marched off. Half a mile down the road and the little girl turned a corner. Off in the distance there was "The Sultans Elephant", the chorus of gasps and shouts was euphoric as several hundred people broke into a run towards this magnificent creature.
The elephant is a huge metal and wooden structure around 3 or 4 stories high and weighing in at around 40 tonnes that has to be seen to be believed. Perched in strategic locations around the structure are members of the Royal De Luxe team frantically tapping levers, bleating at each other over headsets and pointing at each other to carefully sequence the elephant’s majestic movement. The detail is incredible. Each leg moves independently the head twists, eyes blink, and a huge robotic trunk with over 15 sections twists and bobs - occasionally snorting a massive jet of air blowing dust and straw high into the air. At one point whilst stomping around the Horse Guards Parade it swung it's enormous head around - reeled back it's enormous trunk and let out a huge bellowing trumpet, revealing a wagging tongue and lips. It then swung its trunk towards the press area and blasted us with gallons of water sending photographers and cameramen flying in different directions.
The story was loosely taken from a Jules Verne tale about a Sultan who built a time traveling mechanical elephant in search of a time traveling girl. The little girl loved to sew and with her huge needle and thread would stitch cars to the road, boats to docks and even trains to the rails. As the next three days progressed the Sultan was carried around on the back of the elephant and paraded through the streets of London while the little girl landed in a spaceship, went sightseeing in a route master bus and finally met up with the Sultan.
The sheer size of this creature is jaw dropping. Incredibly well crafted and ingeniously built there are few things to compare it to. The fact there are so many tubes and robotic parts, people running about it's base and goggled servants brandishing enormous remote controls - it's simply baffling to know how it's all sequenced so beautifully. There are many more gigantic characters in the Royal Deluxe set including giraffes, monkeys and other giant people - however the elephant is the crowning glory and its slow but majestic stroll is a marvellous sight to see. Even at the end of the day as the light is failing both characters lie down and go to sleep the elephant continues to huff and puff as though snoring. It's head occasionally shifting - the girl sleeping beside him in a huge chair breaths softly as the crowds disperse.
Many people were utterly baffled by the show itself. Royal De Luxe tend not to shout too much about the fact they are coming to town. They prefer to have an element of surprise to it all. Thousands who had simply stumbled across the show were enchanted that the centre of London had simply ground to a halt as this incredible play took place. Many people were asking "what is it?, why do it?, what's it for?" and this is the point at where Royal De Luxe do something no one else has. They create something so incredible that you can't take it all in immediately. It pushes the boundary of what theatre is and takes on a new level of performance.
Day three and the British weather managed to dampen things and as a result we were left to get drenched in 2 hours of rain whilst the Elephant "slept" in Trafalgar Square. However once up and running the elephant picked the girl up and rode her around on his giant tusks. Through out "The Grand Parade" we were treated to the variety of characters popping in and out of the house on it's back. Various scantily clad girls played cards, danced and drew pictures. Chefs cooked, various heavy Chinese blacksmiths stood brandishing weapons and a man closely resembling Sherlock Holmes came out onto the side platform with strange contraptions that looked like antique gramophones that breathed and huge photography cameras with twittering bulbs. On top was the sultan with his hat made of violins and trumpets and what looked like a talking rainbow trout. He stood looking at the crowd through a huge magnifying glass and occasionally throwing mechanical birds into the air that would flutter around the sky and off into the crowd. Along the path we would see rows of cars literally stitched to the ground - a massive thread penetrating the tarmac, the roofs and bonnets of the cars like they were made of cotton. All this accompanied by the band of musicians and loud speaker announcements in French that "We march on" and "We continue to search".
Day four and the little girl heads back with the elephant to the Horse Guards Parade and gets back in her spaceship. There is a blast of fire, smoke and loud bangs as the time machines sends her off - the spaceship is opened and is empty. This final stunt is the end and the Royal De Luxe team board a London bus and drive off through a crowd of people furiously cheering and clapping. The show is over but people will be talking about it for a long time.
If you get a chance to see what is definitely one of the greatest shows on earth you will not be disappointed. Later in the year it will travel to Antwerp, Calais and Le Havre. Having been all over the world you should keep a constant eye on its movements. No two shows are the same and you will get a chance to see the little African boy ride around on the giraffe or the 80 foot giant man get sown to the ground whilst sleeping. It's been said that this is the sort of thing your grandchildren will be telling your grandchildren about - a fair comment to say the least.
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