Xolo the dog, Little Girl Giant, and Deep Sea Diver are the three giant marionettes from Royal de Luxe that will be towering over the streets of Leeuwarden in August.
Translation by Traci White
The three characters will be acting out a piece called “Big Skate in the Ice” over the course of three days starting on 17 August. The Leeuwarder Courant reports that the story was created specifically for Leeuwarden and Friesland, and is inspired by the famous Elfstedentocht ice skating race.
The giants are one of the biggest events – figuratively and literally – of the Leeuwarden-Friesland Capital of Culture year. The announcement of which marionettes would be coming to the city was made in an appropriate setting: Royal de Luxe director Jean-Luc Courcoult shared the news at Madurodaum, the miniature imaginary Dutch city in The Hague. Courcoult said that Leeuwarden is not the smallest city where they have put on a show, but that the Frisian capital’s streets are so narrow that the marionettes will truly look like giants as they are operated through town.
The Nantes, France-based company has created city-consuming productions with the massive marionettes around the globe. The theatre company has a wider cast of marionettes which are operated by elaborate pulley systems and frames, including animals and people.
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