La Machine (production company)

La Machine is a French production company based in Nantes, France, which is famous for La Princesse, a 50-foot mechanical spider constructed in Nantes, France.

The group was formed by artists, designers, fabricators and technicians in early 1990s and is currently led by François Delarozière, Artistic Director and creator of La Princesse. They are known by its extraordinary theatrical machines, permanent installations, and also its own theatrical productions.

On Friday evening the show proper started as the spider 'stood up' to its full height and began to walk away from the arena. A huge crowd turned out, despite the heavy rain, to see this impressive sight. It walked around the Albert Dock area and proceeded onto the Strand main road, which was closed for the evening. A moving cordon of stewards surrounded the spider as it moved through the big crowd, which made for an interesting crowd control challenge at times. The spider sprayed water onto the crowds and touched various objects at the roadside, including the odd umbrella of a member of the public. At all times it was followed by a full live band, housed in their own platforms on top of fortlift trucks and skylifts. This provided the event with its own impressive soundtrack as the beast moved along.

It then turned off the Strand and back into the Albert Dock complex. Here it paused and was lifted from its traction body by a huge crane and into Salthouse Dock, where it was sprayed (along with the crowd) by huge water cannons. After its 'bath' it returned to its traction body and walked along the stand to its resting place for the night next to the Liver Building.

On Saturday the show was listed to start at 11:30 am, with an hours performance taking place at its location outside the Liver Building. However the crowd were to be disappointed as music played but the spider did not move. This misunderstanding was put down to the production company wishing to maintain the mystery of what was going to take place and culture differences.

At 2:30 pm the show did get underway as planned with the spider awakening and starting to walk up Water Street towards the city centre. Liverpool at this point was brimming with its usual Saturday afternoon shopping crowd and the tens of thousands who had turned out to see the spider. The streets around the route and of the actual route itself were crammed full of people.

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Wikipedia