‘Le Roi Boréal’ Discovers Kingston
During the lockdown, when everyone was cooped up at home and avoiding the public, the wilderness slowly began reclaiming its territory. Creator Carl Veilleux saw poetry in this gentle takeover. Abandoned roads and empty sidewalks, once busy with human commuters, became pathways for deer, bears, and other wild creatures. The sight of animals returning to their roots sparked Veilleux’s vision: to capture that sense of reclamation, magic, and poetry in a tangible form. That’s why, if you took a stroll through MacDonald Park this past weekend, you might have bumped into a giant glowing moose walking around and nibbling on tree branches.
Standing at nearly six feet tall with leather ears, looped wooden rope woven across face, body, and limbs, a giant metal spring wrapped in cloth for a belly, and dried grass and wheat draped from shoulders, this four-person puppet show is nothing short of spectacular. Puppet designer Christine Plouffe created Borée the moose, and he is the most intricately detailed creation I have ever seen. His walking mechanics and overall appearance are astonishingly accurate, so much so that, despite being puppeteered by three people, he felt uncannily real. The springs in his belly and neck allow him to turn, stretch, and bend with fluidity, while the subtle touches of blinking eyes, twitching ears, and a moving mouth truly sell his lifelike qualities.
It might even be better than seeing a real moose; this one is gentle, curious, and unafraid to interact with people and the surrounding environment. He will tilt his head to listen to the birds, peer down at the greenery underfoot, or munch on a nearby tree branch. Sometimes he even stretches forward to sniff or inspect audience members’ faces.
Equipped with a total of eleven speakers, Borée is not just seen, he’s heard. Sound designer Michael Binette crafted the audio for the seven speakers hidden throughout Borée’s body and the trailer he emerged from, layering a forest ambience of bugs buzzing, birds chirping, wolves howling, and waves crashing. The remaining four are attached to the bottoms of the puppeteers’ feet; these speakers are pressure-activated, adding sound to each step he takes: the clip-clop of hooves on solid ground, the swish of grass, the splash of water, the crunch of snow. At times, he even groans or calls out to a moose somewhere in the distant ambiance.
Inside his body, two puppeteers use flashlights and cardboard cutouts to cast wolf silhouettes on the moose’s cloth belly, while another puppeteer, circling with an iPad in hand, orchestrates the sound and occasionally weaves through the crowd with a smoke machine, further immersing the crowd in the magic. These small theatrical touches make Borée the moose feel as alive as his living counterpart. In the spring, he grows a beautiful set of antlers, only to shed them again in winter. Philippe Marquis designed the LED lights along his body to shift in colour and match the season or the emotion he’s feeling.
Though the three puppeteers, Carl Veilleux, Mathieu Aumont, and Martin Vaillancourt, make it look easy, this job, figuratively, is no walk in the park. For twenty minutes straight, two puppeteers must hold up and maneuver a giant roaming puppet whose body is around 150lbs of complex electronics and engineering. The puppeteer holding up his rear is carrying approximately 70lbs of weight, while the puppeteer holding up his front is carrying approximately 80lbs, plus the 20lbs harness both halves of his body are mounted on. And then there’s the head puppeteer, guiding his 20lbs head with nothing more than the stick it’s attached to.
From his delicate ear twitches to the sound of snow crunching under his feet, Le Roi Boréal is more than a performance; it’s an encounter. It captivates not only those who come seeking it, but also any passersby who stumbles upon the show by chance. Borée blurs the line between imagination and reality, and even if I never see a real moose in my life, experiencing his magic would be more than enough.
‘Le Roi Boréal’ ran until August 9, 2025, at MacDonald Park. More information about the project can be found on their website.
