Giant Girl Puppet Doll, etc.

I find this strangely beautiful and haunting. It seems to conjure some long forgotten childhood memory that I can’t quite bring to the forefront of my conscious — a memory residue almost as if recorded before birth. I find it all intensely beautiful.

The song in the video is “Décollage” by Les Balayeurs du Désert (The Desert Sweepers). It’s a performance of the original song “It Amazes Me”. You can watch Tony Bennett singing his rendition below:

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More on the incredible performances of “The Sultan’s Elephant” by Royal Deluxe:

Royal de Luxe, the renowned French street theatre company, redefined public spectacle with its colossal production, “The Sultan’s Elephant,” which captivated millions across Europe during its 2005 and 2006 tour. An homage to the centenary of Jules Verne’s death, the production’s core involved two extraordinary mechanical marionettes—an 11.2-meter (40-foot), 42-tonne Time-Travelling Elephant and a smaller, but still immense, 5.5-meter Little Girl Giant. This epic saga played out over four days in each city, transforming urban landscapes into a stage for a whimsical, emotional narrative.

The Debut in France (2005): Nantes and Amiens

“The Sultan’s Elephant” first appeared in France in 2005, premiering in Nantes (May) before moving to Amiens (June). These performances were a dazzling success among French audiences already familiar with Royal de Luxe’s “Saga of the Giants.” The narrative follows a Sultan, tormented by dreams of a small time-travelling child, who commissions the elephant to find her in the land of dreams.

The shows established the fundamental elements: the rocket crash (often the girl’s arrival point), the elephant’s thunderous walk, and the magical interaction between the giant pachyderm and the Little Girl. The spectacle was a pure expression of public, free-form art, setting the stage for the massive intervention that followed.

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The London Phenomenon (2006): A Cultural Reclamation

The 2006 performance in London (May 4–7) was arguably the production’s most impactful staging, attracting an estimated one million people and becoming the biggest piece of free theatre ever staged in the city. Produced by Artichoke, the event was monumental in planning and execution, requiring seven years of lobbying to persuade authorities to close key areas of central London.

The London show transcended mere entertainment to become a significant cultural event and a collective act of healing. Staged just nine months after the 7/7 bombings, the spectacle was described as an “artistic occupation of the city” and a “reclamation of the streets for the people.” The sheer delight and wonder—from the Little Girl sewing cars onto the tarmac with a giant needle to the Elephant spraying the audience with water—helped cynical Londoners forget their inhibitions and find a shared moment of joy and communality in their public spaces. The scale of the event required the temporary removal of street furniture and traffic lights to accommodate the colossal figures.

The Ongoing Saga (2006): Antwerp, Calais, and Le Havre

The success continued throughout 2006 with performances in Antwerp (July), Calais (September), and Le Havre (October). Each city provided a unique backdrop for the central, non-linear narrative of searching and discovery. The essence of Royal de Luxe’s work is not the plot, but the giddy pleasure of interaction and the disruption of the everyday.

Ultimately, “The Sultan’s Elephant” was a masterclass in urban intervention. Its 2005 and 2006 tours demonstrated the profound power of monumental, high-quality street theatre to temporarily dismantle the machinery of the modern city and inspire collective imagination, leaving behind a legacy of unforgettable, shared memories across Europe. The mechanical elephant, which required a team of over 100 to operate, was later disassembled, ensuring the spectacle remained a unique, ephemeral memory for those who witnessed its travels.

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