That's How It Happened

I had low expectations for the Sultan's Elephant. It is part of a piece of giant public street theatre, playing out over this weekend, created by a team of renowned French puppeteers. Like Craig in "Being John Malkovich" says of The Great Mantini's 60ft Emily Dickinson marionette, I had thought the whole thing would be "gimmicky". Despite my misgivings, we snuck past the crowds, under the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery to see the elephant in Trafalgar Square. As it came into view, I realised how wrong I was. It is a 40ft, 42 ton robot, mounted on a modifed cherry picker. It has huge articulating legs, and monstrous head and trunk. There is a team of 40 puppeteers, dressed in red velvet page costumes, controlling the beast as it stomps about. A mahout seated astride the massive neck, steers the head. Under the tusks two puppeteers twist and turn the trunk, spraying the crowds with water. Another puppeteer walks beside the elephant, with remote control in hand, moving the eyes and blinking the eyelids. Perhaps because of its obviously mechanical nature, it sits comfortably on the right side of the uncanny valley. It's remarkably emotive for a huge lumbering object. When I saw policemen scattering, trying to avoid the spray of water, I felt as if an Oliphaunt had come to visit London. Awe-inspiring in the most literal sense.

Tags: london, elephant, puppet