The Sultan's Elephant

London was completely mesmerised for four days this week; most fortuitous for Labour & Blair - a good day to bury bad news?

The Sultan's Elephant, an incredible theatrical experience has won the hearts of Londoners and presented theatre art to the masses. Royal de Luxe, the French company who have devised this show have brought pure enchanted magic to this great city.

I've heard lots about the event over the past couple of days and today, managed to get up to Central London. To describe my first sighting of the elephant as 'jaw-dropping' is an understatement. Looking over thousands upon thousands of heads, the elephant was way down in the distance along Piccadilly. Even at this distance, it looked huge. The crowds were awe-struck and whenever the elephant squirted water at them, there was a great cheer. Boy oh boy, the atmosphere was sheer happiness and everyone felt 5 years old again.

Further along the parade, the giant girl was walking up and down The Mall. Seeing the operators working these giant marionettes took none of the magic away. It was part Victorian puppetry, part oversized bunraku and 100% magic.

In this age of cynicism, some people probably questioned,
"what's the point of all this?"
"what a waste of money"
Everywhere I looked, I saw joy on people's faces. At the simplest level, this event made us all very happy and we all rediscovered the magic of childhood and importance of imagination. I think that's a pretty darned big point of all this.