The French street-theatre company Royal de Luxe has presented multiday outdoor performances featuring their giant marionettes for millions of people around the world for more than 20 years. Their current cast of puppets—Big Giant, Little Giantess, Xolo the Dog, Giant Grandmother, and Little Boy Giant—have just been retired, following their final performance last week in Liverpool, England. The BBC reports that the Royal de Luxe artistic director Jean-Luc Courcoult has decided to “end the saga of the Giants,” but he says the group has plans for a new show “involving a silverback gorilla.” Gathered here are images of the giants in Royal de Luxe performances over the years, from England, Mexico, Germany, Chile, and France.
The Final Appearance of the Giant Puppets of Royal de Luxe
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The Royal de Luxe's Shipwrecked Giant, one of the world-famous theatre company's street marionettes, walks along the promenade at New Brighton as he takes part in "Liverpool’s Dream" in Liverpool, England, on October 5, 2018. #
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A marionette known as the Giant Grandmother is paraded through the streets of Liverpool, England, on July 25, 2014. The parade, entitled "Memories of August 1914" by the French theater company Royal de Luxe, featured the Giant Grandmother, a giant little girl, and her dog, named Xolo, and told the story of the city's involvement in World War I. #
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"Vielle Geante" (Old Giant), part of a production by Royal de Luxe entitled "Le Mur de Planck" (The Wall of Planck), wheels through the streets of Nantes, France, on June 7, 2014. #
Fred Tanneau / AFP / Getty -
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Little Girl Giant and Grandmother Giant dance during a parade through the streets of Carouge in their "Saga of the Giants" performance on September 29, 2017, in Geneva. #
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In the finale of the "Sea Odyssey," the giant deep-sea diver, the little giant girl, and her dog, Xolo, sail along the River Mersey through pyrotechnic smoke watched by thousands of people on April 22, 2012, in Liverpool, England. Over the previous three days, Royal de Luxe performed "Sea Odyssey" with the giants coming to life and telling a love story inspired by a letter written by a young girl to her father, who worked as a steward on the Titanic. #
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Xolo, a giant dog, is steered through the center of Liverpool as she and two other giants, a grandmother and a girl, parade for three days telling the story of the city's involvement in World War I, on July 25, 2014. #
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A 50-foot-tall Big Giant and a 25-foot-tall Little Giantess rest in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, on October 3, 2009, as part of an observation of German Unification Day, when the street-theater group Royal de Luxe performed in the city of Berlin. #
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The Little Giantess is operated by members of the Royal de Luxe company in Guadalajara, Mexico, on November 26, 2010, in the framework of the celebrations for the centennial anniversary of the Mexican Revolution. #
Hector Guerrero / AFP / Getty -
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