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Lunidea: Once Upon A Thames: the story of the London whale

1. What inspired you about the story of the Northern Bottlenose whale, swimming up the River Thames in 2006?

We found the story of the London whale really inspiring for different reasons. First of all, this extraordinary visit of a whale to London was a marvellous reminder that, in our over-regulated world, nature still possesses unfathomable mysteries. Also, it was a moment that provoked only the finest emotions among thousands of onlookers. A moving sight of man and nature united in the big city of London was once in a lifetime event.

2. The show merges sound, live animation, mime and dance to tell the story. How did those elements develop individually? What aspects of the story were they inspired by?

From the very beginning of the project development, we imagined a mainly wordless play to give the audience a beautiful perspective and entirely different from well-researched documentaries that sought scientific explanation.

Whales don’t speak. These wonderful creatures use “whale song” to communicate. This is how music and the flute were brought to our play. The dance came to us naturally when we thought of how to bring our whale on stage. The sand animation art form is used to seize on the miraculous, magical aspect of the story. And last but not least, the mime is the highly emotional link to create the whole story rather than just a series of dream sequences.

3. You introduce a storyteller into the performance, but use little text. Can you tell us more about your decision to use sand animation as a visual mode of storytelling?

We found that the sand animation art would wonderfully suit our story: it goes straight to the heart and wakes up people’s imagination. It is also so difficult to master and to perform that the audience perceive it as a little miracle. Exactly what we were looking for to introduce the story.

4. How do the different elements of the show interact with each other to create the tale?

The dance, mime and music, ‘news’ projections pop up and these staged reports hilariously highlight the prosaic story unfolding on land while wonder and magic was unfolding in the river.

Our characters express themselves through their own art: the Storyteller draws in the sand, the Whale dances, the Bird mimes and the Siren sings. They easily and harmoniously interact with each other and with the audience as the only thing that really matters is the true emotion that they express. Together with beautiful musical themes created to highlight the characters’ feelings throughout the play, pure emotion is the strongest glue that unites different elements to create a touching tale.

5. In the performance, you treat the story much as a fairytale, blending in the magic of visual language with the power of sound, which gives character to the whale. How did you develop this approach?

To us this story had all the ingredients of a fairytale, this is how our artistic team perceived it from the very beginning. The miraculous aspect of the whale’s visit to London, which I’ve already mentioned, the fact that people were so enchanted by it, made us choose the fairytale approach.

We found the blend of visual language and sound much more powerful than conventional storytelling. We also wanted our adult audience to abandon the literal, rational understanding mode of perception and to live a different, a dream experience. I’ve said “adult” audience as children naturally connect with non-literal imaginative ways of narration and it’s not surprising that our young audience has been so delighted with the play.

6. There’s a strong differentiation between what’s happening on the surface and what is underneath. How did you approach that distinction in the storytelling?

We decided to include “breaking news” projections to highlight in a comic way the prosaic story unfolding on land while magic was unfolding in the Thames. This strong differentiation indeed was meant to show the different perception of the same reality: how it appeared to the people watching and how it was lived by the whale. For instance, the noises of the big city heard under the water created an unbearable mixture of awful sounds that deafened the whale on her arrival. But for most of the people it was mainly an amusing tourist new attraction not because people have no heart but because they perceive only one reality, their reality.

7. What were the challenges of bringing humour to such a modern fairytale?

The biggest challenge was to bring humour to a story that ends tragically as the whale dies during the rescue mission attempt. But our story is not about the fact that the whale died, it is a condensed life journey, so we made our characters go through all kind of feelings from the most joyful to the saddest. And, of course, laughter is a great way for the audience to strongly connect with the story.

8. Your story exists between fairytale and parable. What do you feel is the essential conflict that makes the story so powerful?

The essential conflict is between what we would like to happen and what really happens. This is what life is about after all: the constant duality of our existence on the fine edge between dreams and disillusions, hopes and disappointments, joy and sorrow, always this other side of the coin that make us suffer but that also makes this unique life experience so powerful and beautiful.

Thank you.

Tagged: Leicester Square Theatre