Royal de Luxe: Press Echo 20 Jahre Mauerfall

Press Echo Royal des Luxe, Nantes 5 to 7 June 09 »LE GÉANTE ET LE SCAPHANDRIER«

Der Tagesspiegel, Andreas Schäfer, 8th June 2009
Reunification anniversary attended by giants
[…] The people cheer, children start skipping, the policemen on the barriers smile happily. And as soon as the Little Giantess rises up to her full height of five and a half metres and begins her slow motion walk through the city, a happy bunch of people follow her through the streets. For hours. […]
In Nantes, where Royal de Luxe have made their home for the last twenty years, puppet inventor Jean-Luc Courcoult is loved like a clown and worshipped like a shaman. They give him free workshop space and are prepared to close half the city when he brings his creatures to life. Which happens all too seldom. Because he spends most of the time travelling the world with them, going to Africa, Asia or to Berlin. For spielzeit’europa, the Berliner Festspiele’s theatre season, Royal de Luxe are coming to town – and as »site-specific narratives« are one of the company’s principles, the metaphor of reunification immediately presented itself. Without doubt, these puppets made of steel and lime and poplar are capable of moving an audience of millions: enchanting the city in the gentlest way since the wrapping of the Reichstag.

Bild, Claudia Weingärtner, 8th June 2009
A miraculous work makes its way to Berlin
15 metre giant comes to celebrate reunification
Thousands stand on the banks of the Loire watching the river. Suddenly there is loud music – and movement in the water. A giant, wrapped in a diving suit, surfaces and climbs onto the bridge. The crowd cheer. The 15 metre high figure is the world’s largest puppet. Yesterday it was revealed in the French city of Nantes. Together with a seven metre high female giant it will transform Berlin into a gigantic stage from 2nd October.
»The spectacle will be something very special«, says Brigitte Fürle (49), artistic director of the project. »It will be appropriate for this historic anniversary. Most importantly the puppets have one thing in common with east-west stories: they get under your skin.«

dpa, Sabine Glaubitz, 7th June 2009
Giant puppets rehearse fall of the wall
»Giants« dress rehearsal for the celebration of German unity: this weekend a spectacle with two gigantic puppets delighted crowds in the French city of Nantes. The famous company Royal de Luxe tell a fairy story about the partition of Berlin and will present their remarkable story 20 years after the fall of the wall in the capital on German Unity Day in front of anticipated crows of hundreds of thousands.
»One of the company’s principles is to always create a story specific to a particular location«, said Brigitte Fürle, artistic director of spielzeit’europa, the Berliner Festspiele’s theatre season.
She wishes to use this street theatre to recreate the emotions of 1989 and move a mass audience. A wish which is likely to succeed because every appearance of the giants so far has drawn millions of spectators and transformed the spectacle into a gigantic party for the people.

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