Little Nemo lives in Bangkok
Next Monday will mark the 113th anniversary of Little Nemo In Slumberland — Winsor McCay’s epic comic strip, which first appeared in The New York Herald on Oct 15, 1905. An influential American cartoonist, McCay (18691934) employed vivid colours, inventive composition and perspective as well as an imaginative narrative in taking Nemo on bizarre nocturnal journeys in each instalment of the groundbreaking comic. The boy’s destination is Slumberland, whose King Morpheus summons him to be the little princess’s playmate. Along the way, his bedtime adventures get interrupted and he always wakes up from his wildest dreams, sometimes falling off the bed, and returns to reality in the last panel of the strip. McCay’s protagonist along with other fictional characters will come to life at the “Kids Carnival: Little Nemo In Slumberland” balloon festival, organised during the school break by Siam Paragon in collaboration with Siam Commercial Credit Card and Origin Property, so that children can experience the fantastical show. From Oct 17-21, the one-hour performance will be staged at Parc Paragon, where over 20 colourful inflatables will be operated by Plasticiens Volants, a street theatre company based in Graulhet, a town in the department of Tarn in southern France. The Gallic troupe have performed fixed and mobile shows in other festivals and world events, the latter including a production for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Created in 2015, their interpretation of Little Nemo In Slumberland features giant mythical creatures, buildings, raspberry fields and Nemo on his hovering bed, whose legs can tower 9m high. Mingling and playing with the audience, Plasticiens Volants’s actor-operators are at one with the floating characters while a combination of theatre, pyrotechnics and acrobatics along with music and lighting effects promises a spectacular performance for kids and adults alike.