There are some things that are cool about London, but you see them every day and slowly become inured to their coolness. Those red phone boxes, for instance, or the phrase “mind the Gap,” on the Tube, these things used to thrill me because they seemed so quaint and quintessentially British, but now I don’t notice them much. You can usually tell when your acting like a tourist because you find things interesting that the natives don’t notice—like those phone boxes. Nothing makes a hardened Londoner roll his eyes more than seeing a group of people posing in front of one of those red telephone boxes. Then there are the things you don’t see every day, the things that even consummate Londoners race to photograph because it is so new and interesting. The larger than life size elephant robot I saw on Saturday definitely fit into the second category.
There was a four-day performance art extravaganza going on in London this weekend. A puppet group has staged an elaborate show, lasting four days, about an Indian sultan from the past. Apparently he had a dream about a little girl who will exist in 21st century London. The dream consumed him, so the court scientist built, what else, a gigantic time traveling elephant to take him to 21st century London and find the little girl. They were going to ride the elephant around London, and then have a bunch of events where the riders acted out scenes from their story, culminating on Sunday when a giant puppet of a little girl would arrive on a spaceship.
We, my friend Katie and I, didn’t see any of the theatricals, but we did get to see the giant elephant, which was awesome. The elephant was followed by a rock band, which provided the soundtrack to the elephant’s story. It was a great opportunity to take pictures without feeling like a tourist.
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