Sea Odyssey's Giant Dolls Visit Liverpool for Royal De Luxe Titanic Performance

Street theatre company Royal De Luxe has taken its Giants marionette show to Liverpool as part of a performance called Sea Odyssey. The highlight will be the Little Girl doll, which stands 30ft (10 metres) high.

The doll was built by more than 100 people and in the story represents the young daughter of a steward on board the Titanic on the eve of its ill-fated voyage. She will be joined by a giant uncle and a dog called Xolo.

The story centres on a letter written by the girl to her father on the day before the Titanic tragedy. Her uncle, a diver and time-travelling agent, comes back with a chest containing lost letters written by passengers from the stricken vessel. The girl sets off, accompanied by Xolo, in search of her uncle.

According to the BBC, two million people went to see the Royal De Luxe show in 2007 and three-and-a-half million in 2010. In 2006, the street theatre company took a 42-ton elephant to Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus.

"We want to tell a story to a city. We know the public will be in love with the giant, Xolo and the diver. Every giant exudes a very different emotion. It's a universal language, it's the language of emotion," Royal De Luxe executive director Gwenaille Raux, told the BBC.

The group's director, Jean-Luc Courcoult, thought of the Titanic theme in 2006, when he visited the Mersey Maritime Museum and discovered a letter written by a nine-year-old girl to her father, a steward on the ill-fated liner, according to the Guardian.

"It was the first letter she had ever written. It was barely literate, yet the emotions it described were so heartfelt. Eventually, it was returned to her unopened," he explained.

"I have seen people shed tears when the giants leave," Courcoult added. "Most adults lose the ability to dream like this. But for a short while, the presence of the giants makes them feel things as a child once more."

The show runs to 22 April.