A group of Spanish performers has gone viral after dressing and performing as astrophysicist Professor Stephen Hawking, all in the name of charity.
The comedy troupe performed on stage dressed in suits, light-coloured wigs, facial prosthetics and glasses to mimic the English theoretical physicist as part of a carnival competition.
They chose a controversial way to raise awareness of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a type 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, at the fourth stage of Cadiz’s annual Official Carnival Groups Competition.
The men took to the stage at 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 speak.
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.
At the age of 17, he was enrolled at University College, Oxford, where he received a first-class BA degree in Physics before beginning his graduate work in cosmology at Cambridge.
In 1963, aged 21, he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) in which doctors had initially given him just two years to live.
Despite becoming less able to move or speak, his condition did not 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 breathing.
Hawking went on to have a career in cosmology spanning five decades, 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 caused by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which gradually paralysed him over 55 years.
He was cremated after a funeral in Cambridge on 31 March and then interred in Westminster Abbey, near Newton and Darwin, on 15 June.
The group acknowledged the performance was a risky way to raise awareness of the debilitating disease, but added they aimed to use dark humour without offending anyone.
Miguel said: ‘Don’t be offended, this is just 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 have reached the very top, even the stars,’ El Pais reported.
‘ALS left me as you can see, but I managed to be independent, I triumphed all on my own.’
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 be enough to make it through to the final rounds of the competition on February 13.
Once the competition has finished, the group have said they will donate all 12 wheelchairs to people living with ALS.
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