The Incredible and Phenomenal Journey of The Giants to the Streets of Perth
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Fri 13 Feb 2015 - Sun 15 Feb 2015
Does the name "Royal de Luxe" ring any bell for you? It didn't for me, at least until a few weeks ago, when the
Perth International Arts Festival 2015 started announcing their list of events. Even though this company has been around since 1979, chances are, we would not have heard about it if not for the fact that they would participate in the Perth Festival through their performance titled "
."
Royal de Luxe was a street theatre company based in France, founded by three French artists including
Jean Luc Courcoult (pictured below). A little guy wearing weird glasses and flowery clothings generally inspires more mirth than awe, however Courcoult is not worried as his Giants would inspire awe enough.
This French Director brings street theatre to an extreme by employing giant-sized mechanical puppets of timber, metal, and rope as his performers.Controlled by a team of puppeteers/ technicians through the employment of cranes and pulleys, the Giants can walk, move and do different things, including interact with human and with other Giants. There are several characters created including a girl (who was their first giant puppet from 1993), a grandmother, an elephant, and a diver.
This February, Courcoult brings his puppets for the first time to Australia after a series of successful performances in various countries in Europe and Central/South America. If you wish, feel free to gloat that we are the first place in Australia to be visited by the Giants, and we even beat the USA to it (they're scheduled to host the Giants next year). When asked during an interview with the West Australians why he favoured Australia this time around over invitations from other countries, he said that the timing is right: He saw the opportunity to share French and Australian involvement in World War I. As the Giants are, well, extra large in size and naturally expensive to relocate and operate, only two have been transported here for this event: the girl (pictured below left) and the diver (pictured below right).
A
storyline has been created by Courcoult around these two characters to commemorate the ANZAC Centenary: A girl-giant fell into the Aboriginal community in south-west WA and she felt welcomed so decided to stay. One day, she read a book about ANZAC soldiers. Then she had a vision about a diver in Gallipolli 1915 who tried to find survivors from sunken ANZAC ships but he failed (there's no survivors), and the diver decided to stay at the bottom of ocean to bury the dead soldiers and he eventually grew to be a giant himself. The girl-giant sent the diver a message by blowing bubbles into the water. They finally met in Perth.
This story would be enacted in the streets of Perth within three days: Friday, 13 February until Sunday, 15 February. To support this story, a route has been planned as follow:
Fri 9.30am-12.30pm: The girl-giant from Langley Park through Barrack Street to Wellington Square
Fri 4-7.30pm: The girl-giant from Wellington Square through Hay Street back to Langley Park
Sat 9am-12.30pm: The girl-giant from Langley Park through Beaufort Street to Weld Square
Sat 10.30am-12.30pm: The diver from Perth Train Station (Wellington Street) through Hay Street to Wellington Square
Sat 3.30-7.30pm: The diver from Wellington Square through Bennett Street to Langley Park
Sat 4-7.30pm: The girl-giant from Weld Square through St Georges Terrace to Langley Park
Sun 10am-1pm: Both at Langley Park.
If you need more details, you can read the complete storyline, download the itinerary of the Giants, and find information about road closures
here .
#theatre
#perth_city
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#unusual_events
#february
!date 13/02/2015 -- 15/02/2015
%wnperth
120757 - 2023-06-12 22:33:34