When Light Bends

Sleight of hand…optical illusion…music…mystery…will show you how.

Is an eclipse a portal to renewal or a portent of doom? In anticipation of the solar eclipse of April 8, 2024, When Light Bends pushes us to question our place in the universe and how that place may be in flux.

A play with music that riffs on the science of relativity with interludes of magic and illusion, When Light Bends tells the story of Albert Einstein’s struggle to complete his General Theory of Relativity and Arthur Eddington’s fight to confirm that theory by observing the positions of the stars during the 1919 solar eclipse. This collaboration between two scientists on opposite sides of World War I is paired with a celestial fable of two lovers searching for a closer connection to each other, as they rush to reach the path of totality during 2024’s eclipse before it’s too late. In both tales, our protagonists are forced to update their beliefs, and uncover hidden truths, in the face of the complex, the simple, and the sublime.

The piece will incorporate sleight of hand and optical illusion accompanied by intermittent music, inviting the audience to come together over the mysterious and fleetingly knowable.

Created and commissioned by Media Art Xploration (MAX), the work will be developed in collaboration with Highland Center for the Arts and is supported by the Simons Foundation as part of its ‘In the Path of Totality’ initiative with additional support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. When Light Bends is produced by Kay Matschullat, directed by Elena Araoz, written by John Lopez and Gracie Leavitt, with Steve Cuiffo as Illusion Designer, Justin Townsend designing set and lights, and composer Tamar Muskal inventing an original score. The piece will be activated by a diverse cast representing the world in which we live and reflecting the audience they seek to serve.

For more information visit https://mediaartexploration.org/when-light-bends/