Spiders and Dragons, Oh My

Monsters have been roaming the streets of Ottawa for the last four days. Kumo, a giant grumpy water-spitting spider, and Long Ma, a massive fire-breathing dragon-horse have been napping, wandering and fighting their way through downtown surrounded by hordes of admiring humans. I was lucky enough to see both of them wake up from their naps.

Kumo and Long Ma are gigantic mechanical beings created and operated by La Machine, a French theatre production company, acting out a story called The Spirit of Dragon-Horse: The Stolen Wings throughout Ottawa as part of the Canada 150 celebrations.

I knew that Thursday night we were going to see Kumo, the spider, awaken from her sleep near the National Art Gallery. I really did not expect the level of spectacle this would involve. First off, Kumo was perched atop Notre Dame Cathedral attached to a very tall crane. Other smaller cranes held platforms for the orchestra to be hoisted into the air. The crowd was tight, Canada Day tight. If you were scared of crowds and 13m high spiders, this could be your worst nightmare. I, on the other hand, was mesmerized. She was beautiful up there, cuddled up to the statue of Mary, waiting for the ominous organ music to begin and the operators to do their sinuous rappel down from a crane. Once everyone was in place they began to lower her, fangs waving, spewing water (or venom?) while a snow machine covered the crowd in faux snow. It was a marvellous experience.

The next morning was the waking of Long Ma, the dragon-horse who has lost his wings. Long Ma was sleeping outside City Hall and when I arrived half an hour before the event, it already looked like there were more people there than for Trump’s inauguration. And understandably so. While they share a colour scheme, Long Ma is far more elegant and magnetic, magical even. Watching Long Ma wake up breathing his smoke and fire, I was as enchanted as if I were a small child. I wanted him to be my friend the same way I had wanted to befriend characters from books. We could hang out together and he could boil our tea.

Then he gracefully stepped out onto the street, flicked his long green tongue and sent a plume of smoke into the sky, making everyone cheer, before heading off to meet up with his nemesis Kumo.