Have you ever wondered what it would be like if we had a genuine appreciation of the arts in the US? I mean a real culturally ingrained love for the spectacle and pageantry of art, not just some underfunded office that occasionally gives money to some dipshit who submerges a crucifix in urine.
We could probably have something as wonderful and fun as, The Sultan’s Elephant, the four day event that is currently going on in London:
The Sultan’s Elephant is a spectacle you’ve only imagined… Created by theatrical magicians Royal de Luxe, it tells the story of a sultan from far-off lands and his magical, time-travelling mechanical elephant. Forty feet high and 42 tonnes in weight, this beautiful creature will capture the hearts and minds of everyone who sees it.
The Sultan’s Elephant is played out over four days in the streets, squares and public spaces of central London. Whether you dip into it for three hours or follow its progress for three days, this breathtaking show will live in your memory forever.
The story (with pictures):
Once upon a time, there lived a sultan who was tormented in his dreams by visions of a little girl who was travelling through time. This is his story, incredible but true.
The sultan could no longer sleep, his growing anguish diverting his attention from affairs of state. In order to cure his sickness, and believing that he would find the girl in the land of dreams, he commissioned an unknown engineer living in 1900 to construct a time-travelling elephant. A few months later, the sultan set off with his court in search of the little giant, which, in the course of his nightmares, had been transformed into a marionette 5 metres high.
The trip was awful, but they found a series of clues as to her wherabouts. The giant loved sewing – she liked to stitch cars to the tarmac, boats to quaysides, trains to railway tracks and sometimes even envelopes to letterboxes.
The elephant followed the trail left by the puppeteers. And as in all love stories, strange things began to happen. Such was his happiness at getting closer to her, he began to expel hundreds of living birds which disappeared into the sky in a burst of joy…
Ah, to be in a city that spent hard earned tax dollars on something so frivolous and joyful… Maybe some day, after WW III, when Canada and Europe rehabilitate us into a real civilized country…
Perhaps I’m simply being cynical but I don’t think we could have something so magical and whimsical preformed in the US without it either being commercialized to death (picture the mechanical elephant with Nascar-style logos all over it) or some fabricated stink made by religious conservatives because it doesn’t mention Jesus.
I saw the elephant and the space ship in the BBC earlier without any reference to what was going on other than a festival. As close as we have come are the painted cows, etc. that various cities have displayed.
It’s a shame because this is the type of thing that would attract people if you have a tourist economy. This is like the local “Bill Bowlegs” festival we have locally in June, except London shows professionalism and class, rather than simply fireworks and a parade.
Here in Savannah we have Saint Patrick’s Day which is just a staggering drunken mess with a parade attached. otherwise it’s just your usual foux cultural assides: Shkespeare in the park (Ever hear MacBeth with a southern Accent? Shudder) and the annual jazz festival, which makes Kenny g sound good.
Savannah is a pretty city with a lot of potential as a vacation destination.
Tennessee Williams could have made “the Scottish play” more Georgian than Gone With The Wind.
Imagine the scenes set in the Coca Cola board room or CNN instead of Scotland.
Romeo and Juliet in a trailer park, A Midsummer’s Night Dream at a Baptist revival in the mountains – the possibilities are endless.
At the Stratford Festival in Britain they are showing a film version of Hamlet set in a Rom [Gypsy] encampment by a garbage dump.
Oh sure, Southern themed Shakespeare is a wide open, untapped interpritation. I’d like to see A Midsummer’s Night Dream at a Baptist revival in the mountains.
Did you ever see Scotland PA? The Scotish Play set at a burger franchise in PA in the 70s, with Christopher Walken. Brilliant.