Sea Odyssey: Giant Spectacular was a three-day outdoor performance art event featuring giant marionettes, that took place in Liverpool, England, from 20 to 22 April 2012. [1]
It was designed and operated by French street theatre company Royal de Luxe, and featured three giants, the 9-metre (30-foot) tall Little Giant Girl, the 15-metre (50-foot) tall Giant Uncle, and the girl's dog, Xolo. [2]
It was estimated that, over the course of the three days, 600,000 people watched the event [3] whilst Liverpool City Council recorded a footfall in the main shopping district of 900,000. [4]
An independent report into the impact of Sea Odyssey concluded it was the most successful event in Liverpool's history. The report showed that 800,000 people took part in the event, which resulted in an economic impact of £32 million. [5]
The event, staged to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, was inspired by a letter written by a 10-year-old girl, May McMurray, in 1912 to her father William, a bedroom steward on the Titanic who did not survive the sinking. The letter did not arrive until after the Titanic sailed, and was returned to the sender and is now on display at Liverpool's Maritime Museum. [6] [7] [8]
The cost of the event, estimated at £1.5m, was partly met by European legacy funding from Liverpool's 2008 Capital of Culture year. Early forecasts suggested it resulted in a £12 million boost to the city's economy. [9] [10] [11]
With initial expectations of around 250,000 people attending, [12] immediately after the event it was estimated that 600,000 people watched the event over the three days. [3] [11]
The show was led by Royal de Luxe's artistic director, Jean-Luc Courcoult, who celebrated its conclusion by jumping into the River Mersey. [3] [13]
The story, written by Jean-Luc Courcoult, envisages the girl's uncle, a diver, searching the wreck of the Titanic, and having found his brother's letter, coming ashore to bring it and the news of the ship's fate to his niece. [14]
Rising from the water at Liverpool's Salthouse Dock, the giant uncle wanders around the city in search of the girl, who simultaneously awakes in the city's Stanley Park and, accompanied by her dog Xolo, sets out to look for her uncle. [2]
The two miss each other several times, finally meeting up at the King's Dock at the end of the second day of the event. The following day, the pair set out together for a final walk around the city centre, and then board a boat at Canning Dock and leave Liverpool via the River Mersey. [3] [9]
Between them, by the end of the three days, the giants covered a distance of 23 miles (37 km), taking in the areas around the football grounds of Liverpool F.C. and Everton F.C., the city centre, Pier Head, Chinatown, and the Albert Dock and King's Dock complexes. [6]
The giants taking part in the event comprised the Little Giant Girl, measuring 9 metres (30 feet), the Giant Uncle, measuring 15 metres (50 feet), and the girl's dog, Xolo. The girl and the uncle are constructed from poplar wood, lime wood and steel, and have eyes made from street lights and hair made from horse hair. The dog, Xolo, is made from papier-mâché and steel. All three are controlled using ropes, pulleys and motors. [1] [12]
During the three days, the puppets, cranes, and other equipment required a team of 110 operators, who call themselves Lilliputians after the characters from the 1726 Jonathan Swift novel Gulliver's Travels . A total of 20 cranes were required to move them around the city. [1] The uncle requires 31 people to control, with the girl operated by a team of 24 puppeteers, and the dog a team of 21. [12]
During the tour the giants were accompanied by a group of live musicians, and used a number of props, including the girl's boat, on which she sailed for part of her journey, her scooter, deck chair, bed, and radio. [14]
Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding and fabrication company headquartered in London with sites in Belfast, Arnish, Appledore and Methil. It specialises in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the White Star Line, including Olympic-class trio – RMS Olympic, RMS Titanic and HMHS Britannic. Outside of White Star Line, other ships that have been built include the Royal Navy's HMS Belfast; Royal Mail Line's Andes; Shaw, Savill & Albion's Southern Cross; Union-Castle's RMS Pendennis Castle; P&O's Canberra; and Hamburg-America's SS Amerika of 1905. Harland and Wolff's official history, Shipbuilders to the World, was published in 1986.
The Xoloitzcuintle is one of several breeds of hairless dog. It is found in standard, intermediate, and miniature sizes. The Xolo also comes in a coated variety, totally covered in fur. Coated and hairless can be born in the same litter as a result of the same combination of genes. The hairless variant is known as the Perro pelón mexicano or Mexican hairless dog. It is characterized by its duality, wrinkles, and dental abnormalities, along with a primitive temper. In Nahuatl, from which its name originates, it is xōlōitzcuintli (singular) and xōlōitzcuintin (plural). The name comes from the god Xolotl that, according to ancient narratives, is its creator and itzcuīntli, meaning 'dog' in the Nahuatl language.
The Merseyside Maritime Museum is a museum based in the city of Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is part of National Museums Liverpool and an Anchor Point of ERIH, The European Route of Industrial Heritage. It opened for a trial season in 1980 before fully opening in 1984 and expanding in 1986. The museum occupies warehouse block D at the Albert Dock, along with the Piermaster's House, Canning Half Tide Dock and Canning Graving Docks.
The Pier Head is a riverside location in the city centre of Liverpool, England. It was part of the former Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City UNESCO World Heritage Site, which was inscribed in 2004, but revoked in 2021. As well as a collection of landmark buildings, recreational open space, and a number of memorials, the Pier Head was the landing site for passenger ships travelling to and from the city.
The Port of Liverpool is the enclosed 7.5-mile (12.1 km) dock system that runs from Brunswick Dock in Liverpool to Seaforth Dock, Seaforth, on the east side of the River Mersey and the Birkenhead Docks between Birkenhead and Wallasey on the west side of the river. The port was extended in 2016 by the building of an in-river container terminal at Seaforth Dock, named Liverpool2. The terminal can berth two 14,000 container Post-Panamax ships.
William McMaster Murdoch, RNR was a Scottish sailor, who was the first officer on the RMS Titanic. He was the officer in charge on the bridge when the ship collided with an iceberg, and was one of the more than 1,500 people who died when the ship sank.
The Odyssey Complex, consisting of Odyssey Place and the SSE Arena, is a sports, entertainment and science learning complex located within the Titanic Quarter in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Belfast Harbour is a major maritime hub in Belfast, Northern Ireland, handling 67% of Northern Ireland's seaborne trade and about 25% of the maritime trade of the entire island of Ireland. It is a vital gateway for raw materials, exports and consumer goods, and is also Northern Ireland's leading logistics and distribution hub.
MS Freedom of the Seas is a cruise ship operated by Royal Caribbean International. She is the namesake of Royal Caribbean's Freedom class, and can accommodate 3,634 passengers and 1,300 crew on fifteen passenger decks. The vessel also has 4 crew decks below the waterline. Freedom of the Seas was the largest passenger ship ever built from 2006 until construction of her sister ship, Liberty of the Seas in 2007.
The Sultan's Elephant was a show created by the Royal de Luxe theatre company, involving a huge moving mechanical elephant, a giant marionette of a girl and other associated public art installations. In French it was called La visite du sultan des Indes sur son éléphant à voyager dans le temps. The show was commissioned to commemorate the centenary of Jules Verne's death, by the two French cities of Nantes and Amiens, funded by a special grant from the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. The show was performed at various locations around the world between 2005 and 2006.
Royal de Luxe is a French mechanical marionette street theatre company which specialises in giant puppets. They were founded in 1979 in Aix-en-Provence by Jean-Luc Courcoult. After some years based in Toulouse, the company moved to Nantes in 1989. The company has performed in France, Belgium, England, Germany, Iceland, Chile, Australia, Mexico, Canada, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Ireland.
Balmoral is a cruise ship owned and operated by Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines. She was built in 1988 by the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, West Germany, as Crown Odyssey for Royal Cruise Line. She has also sailed for the Norwegian Cruise Line as Norwegian Crown and Orient Lines as Crown Odyssey. In 2007–2008 she was lengthened by 30 m (98 ft) at the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg prior to entering service with her current operator.
La Princesse is a 15-metre (50-foot) mechanical spider designed and operated by French performance art company La Machine. The spider was showcased in Liverpool, England, as part of the 2008 European Capital of Culture celebrations, travelling around the city between 3–7 September. In 2009, it was on display in Yokohama, Japan, as part of Yokohama's 150th anniversary of its port opening. Arts reviewer Lyn Gardner wrote in The Guardian "There were times when it seemed to be leading the entire population of the city on a merry dance, like some kind of arachnid pied piper."
La Machine is a French production company based in Nantes, France, which is famous for La Princesse, a 50-foot mechanical spider constructed in Nantes, France.
TitanicBelfast is a visitor attraction opened in 2012, a monument to Belfast's maritime heritage on the site of the former Harland & Wolff shipyard in the city's Titanic Quarter where the RMS Titanic was built. It tells the stories of the Titanic, which hit an iceberg and sank during her maiden voyage in 1912, and her sister ships RMS Olympic and HMHS Britannic. The building contains more than 12,000 square metres (130,000 sq ft) of floor space, most of which is occupied by a series of galleries, private function rooms and community facilities.
The ocean liner Titanic has been extensively portrayed in films, books, memorials and museums.
Memories of August 1914 was a five-day outdoor performance art event featuring giant marionettes, and took place in Liverpool, England, from 23 to 27 July 2014. The event started with the sleeping Grandmother on display in St George's Hall. On the Friday, approximately 300,000 people watched the giants in the city. On the final day, the giants left the city in a boat on the River Mersey, after making their way from Clarence Dock via The Strand. Crowd estimates show that over the course of the weekend, more than 1.5 million people attended the event.
The Liverpool Giants are a set of giant marionettes built by French theatre company Royal de Luxe and displayed in a series of shows in Liverpool, in England.
Liverpool’s Dream was a three-day outdoor performance art event featuring giant marionettes, that took place in Liverpool, England, from 5 to 7 October 2018. The event attracted more than a million visitors to the city and was, in part, a celebration of the 10th anniversary of Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture in 2008. It was billed as being the last appearance of the giants and the final show of the ‘Giants Trilogy’ after Sea Odyssey and Memories of August 1914.
A giant puppet is a puppet which is tall enough to be easily visible to a street crowd while being manipulated by puppeteers, on the same level. It is therefore most suitable for processions, street theatre and performance art, although some large theatrical animations can be used for the same purpose. Giant puppets are usually articulated and made from a lightweight material. Some are manipulated by puppeteers using rods, strings, stilts, other mechanisms, or a combination of these. Giant puppets have been used worldwide for street entertainment, celebrations or other purposes from ancient times, and they continue in use and in development today. Of the traditional giant rod puppets, the Chinese dragon New Year puppet is "perhaps the most recognized form of the parade puppet". Of the most recent examples, Royal de Luxe of France has produced a notable set of giant string puppets.