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BBC News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
The Documentary Podcast The Herds: Life-sized puppets flee climate change
A vast herd of life-size puppet animals travel from the Congo Basin to the Arctic Circle, to flee the effects of climate change. Following their internationally successful project, The Walk with Little Amal, in which a 13-foot puppet visited 17 countries, drawing attention to the vast numbers of children fleeing war, violence, and persecution, David Lan, previously the artistic director of the Young Vic and Amir Nizar Zuabi the celebrated Palestine theatre director, have created a new global project, The Herds. Concerned with raising awareness of climate change, it is inspired by the notion that animals are the first to sense environmental disaster and respond alarmingly. The animals, designed in Cape Town by the Ukwanda Puppet Collective and replicated by partners along the route, reflect the countries through which they passed. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from In the Studio, exploring the processes of the world's most creative people.
Euronews
09-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
Life-sized animal puppets complete 20,000km climate crisis journey
Back in April, a herd of towering, life-sized animal puppets - from elephants, giraffes, to antelopes and lions - set out from Kinshasa, in the Congo rainforest, on a hugely ambitious journey that would take them across two continents and 20,000km. Their migration - fictional but steeped in reality - was designed to mirror the flight of animals and people escaping the growing effects of climate disaster and to bring the climate crisis into public spaces in a way that was emotionally visceral, not abstract. As they moved north through Africa and into Europe, the travelling troupe 'adopted' new members - animals native to the countries they passed through - each one built from recycled materials such as and cardboard and plywood. Over the course of the journey, 1,000 people were trained as puppeteers, bringing the creatures to life in 56 public events across 11 countries. The Herds has now finally reached the end of their long migration: climbing Norway's Jostedalsbreen glacier, the largest in mainland Europe, before pressing on to Nordkapp in the Arctic Circle to greet the sunrise on 1 August. The project was created by The Walk Productions, the team behind Little Amal, the 12ft puppet of a refugee girl who travelled through 15 countries in 2021 to raise awareness of the global refugee crisis. When The Herds was first announced, producer David Lan explained the ambition to approach climate change through emotion rather than data. 'Through theatre, we can engage with the major issues of the day,' he told Euronews Culture. 'We're looking particularly for a way in which this very, central event in our lives, climate change, can be expressed not in scientific terms. What we think we might be able to do is allow people to engage emotionally with what is already happening all over." Artistic director Amir Nizar Zuabi, who also worked on The Walk, shared that the project's power lay in its attempt, not its guaranteed impact. 'I don't know if what we add to the conversation will change the world," he shared. "Most probably it won't. Doesn't matter. It's worth trying. But the idea is to create a project that deals with climate change from an emotional stance, from a sensory experience and not from, 'This is the science'.' Check out the video in the web player above to see The Herds finishing its epic journey.
Euronews
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
King Charles meets giant gorilla puppet at climate reception
The encounter was part of The Herd, a global public art project using giant animal puppets to symbolise wildlife displaced by climate change. Created in collaboration with students from Wimbledon College of Arts, the puppets are touring cities worldwide to raise awareness about environmental issues. Their London stop will see them appear in locations including London Bridge, Soho, and Camden. "Through theatre, we can engage with the major issues of the day. We're looking particularly for a way in which this very, central event in our lives, climate change, can be expressed not in scientific terms," David Lan, one of the producers behind The Herds, tells Euronews Culture. He adds: "What we think we might be able to do is allow people to engage emotionally with what is already happening all over." Amir Nizar Zuabi, the artistic director of the project, who also worked on The Walk, agrees with this sentiment. He notes: "I don't know if what we add to the conversation will change the world. Most probably it won't. Doesn't matter. It's worth trying. But the idea of creating a project that deals with climate change from an emotional stance, from a sensory experience and not from, 'This is the science'." Check out footage of the encounter in the video above.
Time Out
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
A gigantic stampede of life-sized puppet animals is coming to London this weekend
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.
Arab News
12-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab News
Herd of animal puppets treks from Africa to arctic Circle in climate action
KINSHASA, Congo: In the Kinshasa Botanical Garden, a troupe of cardboard animals stand at attention in a clearing. Their handlers, puppeteers dressed in black, begin to move slowly through the woods, eventually picking up speed and breaking out into a run. These were the first steps of 'The Herds,' a moving theater performance made up of cardboard puppet animals that flee from the Democratic Republic of Congo to the Arctic Circle in a bid to bring attention to the climate crisis. This week, the puppet animals started their journey in Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC in central Africa. The story goes that the animals will be forced out of their natural habitats due to global warming and displaced north, stopping in cities along the way and being joined by more animals. Just meters away a real-life example of climate change: Part of the botanical garden lay under floodwaters left over from massive flooding earlier this week that left half the city inaccessible and killed dozens. The sight brought 'The Herds' story to life in a bleak way. The main event planned in the center of Kinshasa on Friday was canceled because of the heavy rain. A wildebeest, a gorilla and a giraffe were among the life-size puppets to begin the 20,000-kilometer (12,400-mile) trek that will cross about 10 countries between central Africa and the Arctic by August. Their journey will take them through Nigeria, Senegal, Morocco, France and Norway, among other countries. 'This project tries to give the public a powerful emotional sense of what's happening to the planet,' project producer David Lan said. The trek includes 'now 20, later 40, later 70 animals from all over west Africa, Morocco, Europe who are traveling to escape from the damage done to their ecosystem,' he added. It is financed by several European countries as well as private foundations. The puppets are made of mostly recycled materials: cardboard for the skin and rubber for the joints, according to Siphokazi Mpofu, of the South African collective, Ukwanda Puppets, which created the first puppets. 'Some animals will die on the way,' due to high humidity for instance, 'just like in real life,' Mpofu said. As it travels, the herd will be joined by new puppets representing local species, such as vervet monkeys in Nigeria, wolves and red deer in Europe, and reindeer in Norway. 'The Herds' comes from the team that was behind 'The Walk' in 2021, in which a 12-foot tall puppet of a refugee girl called Little Amal drew attention to the refugee crisis by traveling to 15 countries — from Turkiye to the UK, Ukraine, Mexico and the US. Tshoper Kabambi, a Congolese filmmaker and producer, is working on 'The Herds' as its DRC producer. He said 'The Herds' main goal is to raise awareness. 'Nature is very important to us. But humans have a tendency to neglect nature,' he said. 'We want to raise awareness among people about everything that is happening. You have seen the floods all over the world, global warming, deforestation.' 'The Herds' will stay in Kinshasa until Saturday before moving onto Lagos, Nigeria, and Dakar, Senegal. 'The Herds' organizers say the significance of starting in Congo lies in the fact that the country is home to the second biggest rainforest in the world. The Congo Basin serves as one of the planet's 'lungs,' the other being the Amazon Rainforest. They say much less attention has been focused on Congo's rainforest, but it is still in dire need of protection. Congolese artists were an integral part of 'The Herds' opening act, just as artists from other countries will be as the project moves north. Amir Nizar Zuabi was on that team and is now the artistic director of 'The Herds.' He was also a part of 'The Walk.' 'I think one of the big impacts of this project is the fact that this project is happening in 20 different cities,' he said. 'It will travel through different cultures, different places, and it accumulates. And it will tell the story of the Congo also in Norway, because we have partners everywhere.'
