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Do you remember The Walk? Staged in 2021, the show-slash-festival-slash touring artwork was based around Little Amal, a-not-so-little (in fact gigantic) puppet refugee girl who 'walked’ from war-torn Syria to dear old Blighty.
Now the producers behind it – including former Young Vic boss David Lan – have a new show with a similar, but different, and even more visually striking idea. The Herds is effectively a migration of puppet beasts from the heart of Africa: elephants, giraffes, antelopes, lions, wolves, wildebeest and more.
They set out from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this year, travelling overland from Africa and on into Europe with their final destination of the Arctic Circle. By all accounts they’re travelling in large numbers and their appearances are pretty damn spectacular.
Why is this happening? Well just as The Walk was designed to raise awareness of refugees’ stories, so The Herds is themed around climate change and habit loss, with the animals – all made from recycled materials – 'fleeing’ habitat loss in their native countries.
If that sounds heavy: well yes, it is, but the events scheduled for London actually look pretty fun. After making their arrival at Tower Bridge on the morning of Friday June 27, the beasts will be ‘fed’ at the Scoop amphitheatre near the bridge by local primary school children at 10am in a performance entitled Cornflakes and Hay created by the nearby Unicorn Theatre. That afternoon they’ll move into the West End and stampede around performers from Matilda the Musical and the Royal Opera Company (from 4.10pm) in a bit entitled Hold On for Deer Life.
The next day they’ll take in Camden and Coram’s Fields, while they’ll round off their trip to our city (they’re off to Manchester next week) on Sunday 28 with a visit to Stratford (3.15pm at Westfield!) and finishing with a late night (9.30pm) adventure in St James’s Park called Caught in the Light that’s free but that you’ll have to register for.
All in all a pretty magical weekend for London: The Herds will only visit once; don’t pass up your chance to see it.
The Herds is at multiple venues, Fri Jun 27-Sun Jun 29. For a full list of London shows, click here.
The best open air theatre shows to see in London this summer.