The story of Wings of Time

The story in one paragraph

The story follows Shahbaz, a mythical bird, and his friends Rachel and Felix as they travel through time and across continents. The organiser describes the settings as the Silk Road, the Industrial Revolution, the Mayan Pyramids, underwater worlds and the African savanna. Each scene is brought to life with visual effects projected onto a giant water screen, and the organiser describes the show as family-friendly. A show of about 20 minutes cannot dwell in any one place, so the settings arrive as a quick succession.

The Silk Road

The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes, active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. It took its name from the trade in silk textiles, which were mainly made in China, and tea, dyes, perfumes and porcelain also moved from east to west, while horses, camels, honey, wine and gold travelled the other way. UNESCO lists two Silk Road corridors as World Heritage Sites, added in 2014 and 2023.

The Mayan Pyramids

The Maya occupied a wide territory that included southeastern Mexico and northern Central America, and the civilization is known for its ancient temples. They developed a highly complex series of interlocking ritual calendars, and the 260-day tzolkʼin calendar continues in use in modern Maya communities in Guatemala and Chiapas. Their mathematics included one of the earliest known instances of the explicit zero.

The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain around 1760 and had spread to continental Europe and the United States by about 1840. It involved the increasing use of water power and steam power, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes, and the textile industry was the first to use modern production methods. Historians debate its exact start and end.

Underwater worlds and the savanna

A savanna is a mixed woodland and grassland biome in which the trees are widely spaced so that the canopy does not close, with seasonal rainfall confined mostly to one season. The savannas of Africa, including the Serengeti, are typical, and animals there generally include the giraffe, elephant, buffalo and zebra. The organiser also lists underwater worlds, and the first photograph in the gallery shows a coral scene on the screen.

How the effects work

Projection mapping is a projection technique used to turn objects, often irregularly shaped, into display surfaces for video projection, and it has been used on theatrical stages. A laser lighting display uses laser light to entertain an audience, and beams can draw patterns or images on surfaces, with smoke or fog making a beam visible as a plane or cone of light. Fireworks are low explosive pyrotechnic devices used for entertainment, and an aerial shell explodes high in the sky. The organiser lists all of these, with dancing water fountains.

Who this isn't for

This guide is not a scene-by-scene script, because the organiser can change the show and the order of scenes may differ from the order given here. It does not describe the music or the characters' dialogue. If you want to know exactly what you will see, the show itself is the only complete answer, and the organiser's page is the place to check for changes.

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