When Icarus dared to spread his waxed wings and soar towards the sun, all he got for his courage was a terrifying plunge to his death.
But what if Icarus flew to a black hole instead of the sun, and in doing so learnt a bittersweet lesson about the nature of time? This is the literary concept of Icarus at the Edge of Time, an orchestral narration based on physicist Brian Greene’s children’s book of the same name.
Set to be performed tonight at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, Valletta, the 40-minute show – scored by composer Philip Glass – catapults the popular Greek myth into space while surreptitiously introducing the audience to Einstein’s theory of relativity.
“It’s science in fiction, as opposed to science fiction,” Prof. Greene told The Times. “The original ending always struck me as the wrong way of ending a story about someone who was courageous, bold and went against the advice of his elders.”
Prof. Greene could be forgiven for seeing a bit of Icarus in himself. His work on string theory and the possible existence of multiple universes might have won him global acclaim, but naysayers continue to deride string theory as little more than ‘pseudoscience’.
“You have to go against what your elders tell you and fight the status quo,” Prof. Greene said of science, “and in doing so you might just be able to change reality.”
That is what happens to Prof. Greene’s modern-day Icarus, who makes it to the edge of a black hole, returns to Earth to tell the tale, but realises that 10,000 years have gone by in the meantime.
Writing Icarus at the Edge of Time was an attempt at “greasing the rails” of people’s imaginations and helping them understand complex physical concepts through storytelling, he explained.
“Lecturing these ideas into people often doesn’t work. They need to understand them on an emotional level to connect, and a story can do that very well.”
With Education Minister Evarist Bartolo having just pledged to triple the amount of school time dedicated to science, the performance of Icarus... could not have come at a better time.
According to Prof. Greene, balancing the more technical side of science with an appreciation for the big, bold ideas at the root of science was key to successfully teaching it. “There’s too much of a focus on what’s immediately testable, and those big ideas – what is the arrow of time, what are the origins of the universe – aren’t all that easy to asses,” he said.
“It’s important for teachers to recognise the importance of putting big ideas at the centre, especially when students are young.”
Icarus at the Edge of Time has been performed 22 times across the world, with another six shows in the pipeline.
“I hope people leave the show with a different sense of what science is about,” Prof. Greene said. “Science is ultimately based on hardcore analysis. But the ideas themselves are things anyone can get excited about!”
Icarus at the Edge of Time will be performed tonight at 6.30pm at the Mediterranean Conference Centre. Tickets can be booked at www.mcc.com.mt