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A bunch of Spanish performers has gone viral after dressing and performing as astrophysicist Professor Stephen Hawking, all within the name of charity.
The comedy troupe performed on stage wearing suits, light-coloured wigs, facial prosthetics and glasses to mimic the English theoretical physicist as a part of a carnival competition.
They selected a controversial technique to raise awareness of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a sort of motor neurone disease (MND) and a life-long condition Hawking had before he died in 2018.
The group was met with mixed reviews online after they were captured whizzing around on electric wheelchairs on the cobbled streets of Cadiz in Spain, where the group originates.
‘It was an all-or-nothing idea,’ said group member Miguel Angel Llul, Spanish outlet El Pais reported.
They performed a show on Wednesday entitled’Una chirigota en teoria’ (A Chirigota in Theory), which refers to a genre of Spanish satirical folksong, on the fourth stage of Cadiz’s annual Official Carnival Groups Competition.
The boys took to the stage on the Gran Teatro Falla and sang various songs in a robotic voice, in reference to Hawking’s famous speech-generating device, which helped him to talk.
Who was Professor Stephen Hawking?
Physicist and cosmologist Professor Stephen Hawking was best known for his groundbreaking work in theoretical physics, especially on black holes.
The astrophysist was born on 8 January 1942 in Oxford, hailing from a family of doctors.
On the age of 17, he was enrolled at University College, Oxford, where he received a first-class BA degree in Physics before starting his graduate work in cosmology at Cambridge.
In 1963, aged 21, he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) wherein doctors had initially given him just two years to live.
Despite becoming less capable of move or speak, his condition didn’t progress as fast as predicted.
He later developed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – a neurological disorder that affects motor neurons that control voluntary muscle movement and respiratory.
Hawking went on to have a profession in cosmology spanning five a long time, during which he made several groundbreaking discoveries about our universe, including those related to black holes.
He died on March 14, 2018, aged 76. His death was brought on by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which step by step paralysed him over 55 years.
He was cremated after a funeral in Cambridge on 31 March after which interred in Westminster Abbey, near Newton and Darwin, on 15 June.
The group acknowledged the performance was a dangerous technique to raise awareness of the debilitating disease, but added they aimed to make use of dark humour without offending anyone.
Miguel said: ‘Don’t be offended, that is only for laughs’.
Their performance dedicated lyrics to the late astrophysicist while highlighting how he overcame living with ALS.
Lines from the song include: ‘With my will to live and my wheelchair, I even have reached the very top, even the celebrities,’ El Pais reported.
‘ALS left me as you may see, but I managed to be independent, I triumphed all by myself.’
Miguel added that the director, Francisco Aragon, often works with disabled people to ‘give them a voice and visibility’ through their comedic performances.
The group hope their performance will likely be enough to make it through to the ultimate rounds of the competition on February 13.
Once the competition has finished, the group have said they are going to donate all 12 wheelchairs to people living with ALS.
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